Body Heat
by Amethyst288
Summary: Sasuke is ready to face his solitude. And possibly remedy it. Shortly after making the decision, he meets a blond actor who has an intense gravitational pull and that's not all he has in common with the sun; The bringing of light so strong it casts stark shadows, the shining energy that seeps into your sleepy hollowed spaces, the inspiration to willfully blind yourself to all else.
1. Solar Flare and Stardust

**1\. Solarflare and Stardust**

{Sasuke}

A roar of laughter drifted up from downstairs and the paragraph Sasuke had been concentrating on developed a rip in his hands. He got up, threw his highlighter down and huffed. Running a hand through his hair he decided a break was in order.

Trailing an aura of dreary fatigue, Sasuke exited the study, barely able to force one foot in front of the other. Sitting for so long had put them to sleep. He walked down the corridor stiffly, his mind a tumble of exhaustion, his head was starting to throb. He couldn't remember the last nap he took or the last meal he ate.

A mixer had started downstairs roughly an hour ago but Sasuke had been busy with papers – oh so many papers – with prints so small his eyes burned with the effort he had put in. He couldn't remember much beyond the papers he'd been drowning in all day.

He slunk up to the bar. It was in the lounge, on the landing just upstairs from the revelry, yet out of sight. Quiet as a soft-pawed cat, he slid out a glass from the cabinet and poured himself a strong drink, on the sly. Keeping all sounds to a minimum.

What Itachi doesn't know, won't hurt him.

Then Sasuke took a seat on the couch set closest to the railing as he took a couple quick swallows, eyeing the cast and crew gathered in the living room below. The mansion was a big one and Sasuke had spent many celebrations in exactly the same spot, perfectly hidden away.

With his vantage point, he could view everything through the balustrade but would not be forced to join in. Sasuke was simply perusing the crowd aimlessly, making a half-hearted sport of trying to recall everyone's names in his head when his eyes stopped on a head of golden hair that looked like live wires.

The man was not too tall, his grin exactly what would be expected of an imp. He could easily be the youngest in the room and the expressions on his face added to that concept. Every move of his was wild, almost exaggerated.

Itachi was talking to him, going over what was to be expected of him in the coming weeks of filming the pilot episode. His blond hair was tied back in a tiny pony, leaving just a few wayward strands around his hairline to flutter as he nodded frenetically. The way his eyes scanned the script was carefully focused despite his casual posture. His gaze lingering on the places Itachi was pointing out. Drinking in details with a lively sharpness.

Sasuke noted the way the attractive, young actor moved about, taking small, moseying yet sure steps. Unable to stay in one place too long due to excitement. Itachi, who wasn't much of a pacer was following him, falling into his relaxed pace with every turn in front of the empty fireplace. His stiff shoulders, geared up for a work event were slowly loosening, even the perpetual composed expression and tone slowly turning to one more…excited?

Sasuke couldn't remember the last time Itachi had been excited. And if Itachi qualified as excited, then, in comparison, the blond man was deliriously eager.

Who is that blond man? All in his vicinity seemed to gravitate to him - eyes seemed to be drawn to him wherever he went. Sasuke felt his eye twitch; even he felt a gravitational pull to the young heartthrob, even all the way upstairs. How annoying.

The lush blond hair moved and glowed in the soft lighting, as he walked, like it was a live thing. The infectious personality had people in closest proximity drop what they were doing and stare at hypnotising blues eyes.

Blue eyes the depth of a Caribbean pool, calling out invitingly. Come, have a drink. Come, have a dip. Swim, surf, drown in me.

Sasuke finished his drink, suddenly unsure of what to do with his mouth, but pretty sure what he wanted to do with it. Images flashed through his mind as he vacated his seat.

Even so, something was off. In fact, there were many things he couldn't add up. Many things about the blond he couldn't decide on. Sasuke observed so many inconsistencies, why does he grin like that? Why does he grin that way when his eyes harbour something that made Sasuke's stomach twist?

Who is this attractive, confusing young man?

Sasuke's eyes landed on his tan hands, noting the lack of jewellery or tan lines on the fingers. Just because he doesn't wear a promising band doesn't mean he is unattached. Sasuke sighed and brought the bottle of liquor with him to his little couch as he heard his older brother's production team being introduced to the blond man.

"Maa, maa, Sasuke, such a heavy sigh. What's weighing on your mind?" Kakashi sat down beside him and took a look at the bottle of whatever Sasuke was having, which happened to be rum. "Rum? Really? What are you, a pirate?"

"Did you come here to offer your verdict on my choice of drink? Or do you actually have something worthwhile to say?" Sasuke asked, looking at him sideways with thinly-veiled yet mild irritation.

"I see the way you're looking at our star. Want me to introduce you to him? Jumpstart your…uh, acquaintance-ship?" Kakashi asked with a glint in his eyes that wasn't exactly playful, but the closest thing the man could do to playful, which was probably dark-amusement.

Sasuke felt an answering smile tug at his lips but he didn't show his own amusement. "Who is he?"

Kakashi chuckled, almost unable to believe that Sasuke was actually taking an interest in the blond, almost.

"What?" Sasuke arched an annoyed brow at him.

"I'm just surprised you are taking an interest. Didn't think young, blond co-eds were your type." Kakashi smiled, wanting to hold back information for a bit longer, make the dark-haired brat work for it. "Then again, Itachi had a very surprising reaction too. A single look into those eyes at Gaara's house-warming and he started pestering me. 'Who is he? Where is from? Does he act? Can you introduce me?' I was surprised with the level of interest he was showing."

Sasuke felt his eyebrows go up. He could tell that Itachi, with his artist's eyes, and the general probing and meddlesome interest he showed anyone attractive was interested in the blond for purely professional reasons.

But stranger things have happened.

"Kakashi, who is he?" Sasuke asked again, a deeper frown of his face. His voice more demanding than questioning.

"You're no fun, Sasuke." Kakashi was probably pouting, not that anyone could tell. "Fine. I'll tell you. He's Naruto Uzumaki; he's mentored by Jiraiya, and, for a brief stint before that, by me."

"You? What could you possibly contribute as a mentor?" Sasuke snarked and Kakashi chuckled again.

"Not much, I guess, considering how easy it was for Jiraiya to steal him. Such a shame, he would do so great in PR."

Jiraiya actively sought out this man?

The idea shoved a wrench in the 'he's just another pretty face on camera' concept Sasuke had deemed to be the case. Not only did Jiraiya steal him, Kakashi – who disliked being assigned a pupil – was salty about losing the blond.

Sasuke glanced sideways at the man wearing the surgical mask. Even under the mysophobia-induced mask-wearing habit, Sasuke could detect the affronted frown. Just as he opened his mouth for another question they were disturbed.

"Uh, Sensei?" A pink-haired trainee approached the men; her eyes were constantly skittering to Sasuke at the glare he shot her for the interruption.

"Ah, Sakura! How can I help you?" Kakashi closed his eyes at her and going by the shifting under the mask, he was probably offering her a friendly smile.

"Naruto was looking for you…" she timidly fidgeted with her scarf.

"I see. Alright." Kakashi patted Sasuke on the thigh, in a vague gesture of comfort or amity Sasuke didn't understand the need for. Then Kakashi proceeded to get up, off the couch, and go down the stairs. He was off to meet Naruto who grinned like the Cheshire cat and hugged him.

Sakura waited there for a few minutes, watching them, her eyes flashed to Sasuke once and right before she was about to leave Sasuke called out to her with a low, "Hey, you."

She stopped short and looked at him, her face starting to blend with the colour of her hair. "Ah, yes, Mr Uchiha?"

Tch. Sasuke immediately felt his headache strengthen, he disliked being recognised, and as she fidgeted with one of her seven bracelets he sighed again. How was he supposed to escape his past if everyone looked at him in the same light?

"What can I help you with?" she probed when he didn't respond.

"This Naruto…" Sasuke started, paused then went on. "Who exactly is he?" Sasuke asked with undisguised curiosity.

Sakura's eyes widened as she looked over the railing that Sasuke's gaze was going through to look at the blond.

"He's…um... He's the stuff of sun flares and star dust," she said with a calm smile on her face, her fidgeting coming to a stop. She suddenly looked appropriately young and happy, so completely relaxed and…

"The what of what?" Sasuke felt himself make an expression of surprise, rightfully so, what was this bashful girl suddenly looking so proud and happy for? And what was she talking about?

"Naruto isn't someone you can get to know just by asking, Mr Uchiha. His personality is a force of nature. I can't condense him into few words of a report. Where he is right now, words can't fully explain him." She said with little hesitation even as she thought carefully about her choice of words.

Sasuke watched her admiring gaze still on the happy blond. Did everyone open a brand new bag of something before he came in? Why was everyone behaving this way?

"Sakura! Get your ass down here!" Naruto's voice carried over from downstairs, it was warm yet scratchy, his tone playful and somewhat juvenile. "We're opening the real booze!"

Sakura let out a laugh, her pale green eyes awash with humour. "Coming, Naruto!" she called back, then excused herself and went downstairs.

Sasuke got up and approached the railing and looked down at the revelry of the official cast and crew meeting together for the first time and opening a bottle of champagne, cheering about the success the new TV show, Rasengan, was going to be.

The drink in Naruto's hand was clear but by the face he made after he took a sip – Sasuke felt his lips curve with amusement at the blatant show of a screwed up face – it was definitely not water. The blond was so easy to read, how will he ever be able to fool anyone into thinking he's in some character?

Sasuke made his way downstairs as everyone gathered around a projector and were going through blown-up sketches Sai had drawn as concept art for the first episode. His eyes were on the blond the whole time, watching him practically hang out of his seat as they flipped through the concept art turned into sets and the outfits for the characters and angles for the scene to be shot at.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, absorbing all the information Sai spouted through a fake smile that made skin crawl on even the best of the best. Sasuke couldn't tell if Naruto was just good at ignoring the sickening smile Sai was faking or if Naruto was entirely too absorbed by the slideshow to even look at Sai's face.

"So the setup is mostly indoors?"

"It is." Itachi replied.

"Do we have any shoot days on location?" Naruto practically vibrated with excitement at Itachi's nod. "Where is it? Tell me, tell me!"

Itachi smiled slightly and the room went silent at the man's reaction. "All in good time, Naruto."

"We better have some badass music playing every time my character enter the scene. That shit always gets me hyped!" Naruto grinned, his leg shaking with nervous energy and anticipation. Sasuke could feel the reverberations of the people laughing in his own sternum. On pausing, he realised it was because he, too, was chuckling.

Sasuke found himself asking the question again this time more wistfully and curious than before. Who are you, Naruto?

As if he'd heard the question Naruto's baby blues met charcoal blacks.

"Hey, Itachi, is that your ghost of Christmas past or am I seeing things?" Naruto asked.

Itachi followed his gaze and replied with a gleam in his eyes. "That… happens to be my foolish otōto, Sasuke."

Sasuke couldn't believe Itachi called him foolish in such a cavalier manner, that too in front of Naruto. Itachi never openly expresses himself to anyone, not even something as small as a habitual pet name like 'foolish little brother'.

Who are you Naruto and what have you done to my brother?

"You have a brother?" Naruto gaped at him for a moment before joyously waving Sasuke over. "Hey, Uchiha Junior, come on over."

Sasuke felt his eye twitch at being summoned in that manner. Why couldn't the blond come to him? Who did he think he was? He sighed when the man yoohooed and kept waving at him to join them but before he knew it, he was halfway across the room pulled to the blond man as if by some physics-defying mechanism.

"What?" he asked curtly, earning a puzzled look from the Naruto.

"Wow, what crawled up your coochie and died?" Naruto asked bluntly.

Itachi coughed bemusedly into his hand. Sasuke almost bristled then paused, the blond was behaving like he had no idea… The blond didn't know who he was! The thought took him by storm. This was probably the best news he'd deduced all day.

"How is my coochie any of your business?" Sasuke found himself snapping back in an almost lively tone, several people in their vicinity looked up at the sound of his replying question. The pink-haired in his peripheral vision took a couple of steps closer.

Naruto looked at him with a small frown of barely-present offence, then his expression melted into gleeful amusement. He snickered. "Made you say coochie."

The tension dispelled immediately and Itachi laughed out loud.

Sasuke wondered, again, who Naruto was. He was young, so he couldn't be very experienced... Was he naturally talented at bringing a room together like this? Was he clueless as to the effects his presence was bringing to the room? Or did he know exactly how to play a room and play it off as something natural?

Sasuke shook his head in wonder, standing in front of the seated blond, not sure which of the options were more dangerous to his unbelievably high, inch thick shatterproof walls. Whatever the blond was doing it was working, Sasuke could see the look on his brother's face, the same sort of protection he held for Sasuke was being extended to Naruto. It was a mix of wanting to be in his happy bubble and wanting to protect the happy bubble.

"Are you always so childish?" Sasuke asked, with his tone a bit clipped. Itachi actually frowned at him, disapprovingly.

What have you done to my brother, Naruto? Turned him against me?

Naruto simply unleashed the full force of his grin upon Sasuke and Sasuke almost staggered, his heart lurching, his stomach twisting.

So that's what a solar flare feels like.

Then Naruto let his attentive blue eyes run over Sasuke once more, and the gaze was silently appreciative and caressing at the same time.

And that's what star dust feels like.


	2. Ready, Set, Go

**2 Ready, Set, Go**

Naruto was parked outside the set in his car. His palms were sweatier than his third-grade professor, Mr Mizuki when he got caught leaking question papers for money.

He took a long, chilling breath of the cool morning air and breathed out, trying for some light meditation but he was just about ready to vibrate into another dimension if that's a possible occurrence.

This would be his first long-term project, his first TV show, his first script with a story arc; so many firsts. More than he thought he could handle right now. He was early as well, another first. He glanced at his watch and huffed at the stubbornly slow, crawling pace time had decided to move at. Call time was still two fucking hours away!

He'd been woken up at the asscrack of dawn by Sakura and her slap-happy wake-up technique she calls 'Up and At 'Em no Jutsu.' A technique that was simply her karate chopping his head till he cracked open an eye to glare her away. After that, he spent a good hour and a half at the gym with Rock Lee. A lounging in the sauna and a shower later, Naruto was too awake and wired to complain about anything.

So there he sat, in his car, a latte and a cheesy bagel awaiting him as he simply flipped through the script, looking through the lines and scenes they had done read-throughs and blocking for over the last week. He was not worried about much; Naruto had spent enough time fooling people into thinking he was an absolute moron to worry about expectations, that's not to say he didn't have any of his own. It still alleviated six kinds of stress when nobody else held him to any sort of standard.

If anything all, he was worried about one thing since the mixer at the Uchiha manor.

At the manor, he'd met Uchiha Junior.

While Naruto had done his best to avoid looking at the dark-haired man, the way he'd looked at Naruto from the moment he'd descended those stairs had Naruto on the verge of squirming.

The intense gaze pinned him and the look in those eyes was torturingly familiar. While his face had looked disinterested and even mildly irked, those eyes spilt secrets like a traitor. He'd seen it all, loneliness, self-loathing, a…a hint of arousal and a desperate flicker of hope in the dead black eyes of the younger Uchiha.

He hated it. Who did the lily-white boy think he was anyway? Probing at his mind silently from across the room like that. It was cause for great discomfort later that night, in his dreams, when the man seemed to try and use his eyes to delve into Naruto's eyes, as though diving for hidden treasures, trying to collect pearls.

Naruto huffed then reached for the steaming cup of coffee, taking a slow sip of the sweet drink. He had no idea who Sasuke thought he was but the emo dude was not allowed to look at him like that… in a way that was almost desperately pleading. By the questioning black gaze, it was clear Sasuke didn't remember him.

Whatever.

Naruto put his coffee cup back and flipped through the script, reading up on what was to happen in scenes to come, making notes with a pen of orange ink. He streamlined his thoughts, noting character emotions he can let slip in early scenes so as to form a base for emotions to come later on.

Naruto was halfway through the season when his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Ah, Naruto! Ino here! Kakashi asked me to ask you if you could come to set a bit early today, like as early as possible." Naruto sighed. Cradling his cell phone against his shoulder he picked up his coffee, bagel and script and got out of the car. He headed for warehouse number 7. "Itachi and all were talking and we figured we could go through a few styles to see what suits your character, gather a closet that looks good on your skin tone and run through a few hairstyles—"

He slowly slipped in the side entrance and wandered the corridors while Ino chewed his ear off going on about how red and black would look way better on him but blue and white had its appeal. He found the crew setting up the set, props and all sorts of neat things he hoped to poke his nose into. He waved to them – and a few waved back hesitantly – as he made his way in a sure gait to the blonde who was still yapping away at him about textures and fabrics.

Lucky for him, she wasn't looking his way.

"Anyway, it'd be better to show you in person. So whaddya say? Can you come in a bit early?" She cut her own tirade off, her voice echoed for him, the one coming over the cell phone and the one in front of him overlapping. She was standing by a set of light up mirrors and portable changing rooms, a comb and a pair of scissors being slowly spun in her hand.

Unable to curb his urge to play prankster, he leant in close to Ino, whispering in the ear her phone was not being held against. "Sure thing! Is now okay?"

She jumped a mile in the air, screeching in shock like a banshee while wielding the scissors for his face like a kunai, in a purely defensive attack.

Naruto beat a quick retreat on instinct, his eyes wide and heartbeat in his ears even as a hand came out from behind him, settling between them with a vice like grip on the hand of the blonde girl, stilling her frantic attack but not her high pitched battle cry.

Naruto winced, backing away even more from Ino, backing up into the person whose hand that had helped him not get stabbed on his first day of work.

Sasuke saw what was going down as if in slow motion. Naruto stepped up to the blonde woman, a very naughty smile playing on his lips. He whispered in her ear softly, almost intimately.

Had it been other circumstances he'd have had to deal with his own emotions of actual disappointment at the fact that Naruto had chosen to give his attention to the blonde woman right after his entrance, but luckily he had other more pressing matters to deal with like the fact that his body had moved on its own to protect the blond from having his jugular severed by Ino's unusually quick reaction.

"Ohmyfuckinggod, I'm so fucking sorry, Ino. Remind me never to mess with you! Shit! You almost stabbed my eyes out!" Naruto muttered as he backed away from the woman and further into Sasuke's personal space, then he gulped at the close shave, Sasuke observed the way his Adam's apple bobbed.

He especially noted the apologetic way Naruto chose to compliment Ino instead of ripping her a new asshole for attacking him like a diva. "That was some ninja shit right there. Whatever self-defence classes you're taking, you keep on it! That was the best reaction I've seen. Even my best mate, who's a star athlete wasn't able to…Hey, are you okay?"

Ino stared at Naruto for a good two minutes during which Sasuke let go of her hand. She was probably unable to merge her spiked fear with the harmlessly adorable face and the honeyed hoarse voice of Naruto.

"Jesus fucking Christ at Eurovision! Don't ever do that again, pretty boy!" She fumbled a bit before getting out the words, still shocked at the first-degree murder she'd almost committed. Which probably wouldn't have bothered her as much had Naruto looked half as attractive as he did.

"While your… skills with sharp objects have been noted, Ino. We don't have anyone to replace him with. It would be wise to refrain from stabbing—" While Sasuke started talking Naruto tilted his head then turned to face him. Blue swirling whirlpools met consuming black holes and the air got immediately sucked away, taking Sasuke's voice with it.

Those eyes looked at him with surprised awe.

"Thanks." The words left Naruto's lips softly, his eyes shining with admiration directed at Sasuke. Admiration. Directed at Sasuke. At Sasuke. Of all people.

Sasuke gulped and backed away; taking a much-needed breath he'd lost to the shorter man. All the gates he'd slammed shut, locked up and sealed for good measure were slowly creaking open with a single look from those eyes.

"Your reflexes are on point, dude. I think you just saved my life."

 _I saved his life?_

Ino rolled her eyes at the way Sasuke didn't reply, didn't even nod to acknowledge Naruto's gratitude. "Okay, okay, pretty boy. You can thank him later, come on we need to get your hair fixed. Do you mind if I snip it a bit? Get it all short and spiky, all in your eyes. The girls will love it!"

Sasuke felt a hand on his shoulder and he had to tense up to refrain from reacting the way Ino had.

"Otōto." Itachi's voice sounded hollow and haunted itself. But maybe that was just Sasuke projecting.

"Nii-san." Sasuke allowed his gaze to follow Naruto to the mirrors where Ino took to cutting at his golden lock. If Sasuke looked away it was not because the idea of anyone other than him touching those locks felt like blasphemy to him. And certainly not because in his opinion the shaggy wavy hair of varying lengths, with the longest falling to right under his ears suited Naruto very much. Definitely not because the loss of them feels like a personal loss and a shame.

"Do you approve of the star we have acquired for the show?" Itachi asked. "You certainly look like you do."

"I don't see any proof of stardom yet, Nii-san." Sasuke gave air to his doubts.

"Oh, you'll be surprised what that boy can do once the camera is rolling!" A cheerful new voice made both the brothers turn to face the newcomers.


	3. A Glimpse of You

**3\. A Glimpse Of You**

"I've worked with him before, several times," Suigetsu told Itachi and Sasuke as he approached them with a surprisingly pleased Karin in tow.

Karin nudged him, a sadistic grin forming on her face. "Tell 'em how you both met."

Suigetsu rolled his eyes but complied. "The first time I met him we were both just errand boys running around on commercial sets. I... happened to assume he didn't speak English. For five days he let me believe it! Five days!"

Sasuke felt amusement tug, not only at his lips but his chest felt lighter. He was coming to realise quickly that Naruto was a person who would not pass up an opportunity to have any kind of fun. It takes someone special to live in the here and now and enjoy it as much as they can.

"I spoke to him entirely in gestures and hand motions. Then that asshole comes to me on the last day, speaking perfect English and says he didn't get the role he was practising the language for and thanked me for letting him practice on me. Karin was ecstatic. Me? Not so much."

"Suigetsu, you slimy bastard!" Naruto piped up at the sound of a familiar voice. Evidently back from a haircut. Suigetsu snapped, crackled and popped in fake outrage at being called the slimy one.

As Naruto approached them, Sasuke turned to face him, biting his tongue at the sight. Naruto's hair was short and perfectly messy, falling into his line of sight like he was a troublesome trickster with naughty plans. Sasuke felt an urge bubble up, hot and slick grasping at his lungs with desire. A complaint about the unfairness of his attraction to this man, a complaint about everything crossed his mind but holding his tongue was second nature to Sasuke, so he did just that.

Naruto's mischievous gaze slid over Sasuke but when his eyes stopped to the right catching a glimpse of redhead suddenly his footsteps doubled up on speed. Naruto was a blur of gold hair, flashing past both Uchiha and the voluntarily silver-haired Suigetsu. Naruto wrapped his arms around Karin's hips, lifting the generally hostile woman into the air, swinging her around, forcing a squeal of glee from her as he laughed with joy. "Karin!"

"Naruto! Put me down! Or I swear—" She screamed and laughed again when he simply threw her over his shoulder and raced around to get her to laugh and cry out even more. "Na-ru-to! Let me—"

Sasuke looked on in wonder as the quiet yet short tempered woman shed her guise in front of him, and a few years from her face, as she yelled in actual good humour that she was not a sack of potatoes to be carried around.

"Oh Karin, don't lose hope yet, I'm sure Suigetsu will make an honest sack of potatoes of you yet." Naruto offered as he turned to face the three men, standing about watching the interaction with bare fascination.

"Did you just call me fat?" Karin demands though it's her ass facing the inside of the circle.

"No way." Sasuke denies once Naruto's words settle in his mind. "You and Karin?"

"Going on two years now," Suigetsu nodded with a grin, lifting a peace sign.

"Shut up." Suigetsu's eyes lit up with humour at Sasuke's disbelieving tone.

"Come on!" Naruto asserted. "You can't honestly say all their banter was sans sexual tension. You could cut it with a knife and distribute it among those lacking... if it wasn't abstract."

Sasuke watched Naruto struggle very little with Karin as she complained about being ignored like a sleeping bag thrown over Naruto's shoulder and he let her down before dragging her away to introduce her to Ino.

"Not even a hug for me." Suigetsu huffed then pouted. "Just because they're cousins twice removed or something, she gets all of his attention. That's why I never bring her to the commercials I do with Naruto."

"They what? Karin never told me about her having any cousins." Sasuke bristled.

There was a pause then two questions came up at the same time.

"Man, are you listening to yourself?" Suigetsu asked a furrow in his brow.

Simultaneously, Itachi raised the question. "Why do you care about Karin's family?"

"She knows about mine." Sasuke shrugged with his half cooked bluff, uncaring if the two men in front of him were unconvinced. His eyes following the blond leading Karin to introduce her to Shino Aburame and...Sai.

An unconscious shiver ran down his spine.

Naruto tried to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing when Ino showed him the dark red and light pink outfit. "Ino, the show is about ninjas. How can anyone camouflage with anything with colours like that?"

She shot him a pout before bringing out a green leotard to hang up beside the red outfit and several others he was critiquing.

"Okay, I have a confession..." Naruto reached out, felt the material, it was spandex. "I'm allergic to latex."

She sighed heavily, raising her hands up in the air and throwing them down in exasperation, chucking a blue haori on the floor. "Okay, if you won't wear a condom, I'm leaving." Ino decided to mutter out in irritation at his constant rejection of the outfits so far.

Naruto decided to take her up on the impromptu improvisation opportunity.

He moved closer, lets an arm slip around her waist and pull her closer, looking into her eyes. "But babe, we've been married six years, how can you leave me _now_? We define each other."

She floundered for a second, seemingly wondering if she should shy away and take the humiliation of losing this or play along. Looks like she made her decision, she locked her hands behind his neck. "Well, babe... Maybe, maybe we define each other too much... I... I need a break." She blurted out, grasping for a plot out of thin air.

Naruto let go of her abruptly as if burned by her, twisting away from her, breaking away all physical contact. "Babe... You...you can't mean that. After everything we've been through?"

Unable to think of anything to say in the face of the pained expression he was making, she muttered a soft curse. She looked around for an explanation. "I can't stay with you anymore!" She threw out and when he came up with nothing in return she scavenged a pile of summaries of TV dramas she's read online while looking for something new to binge-watch. "You're making me crazy; I do crazy things because of you!"

"Is that why you tried to kill me this morning?" Naruto prompted and she blanched.

"What? No!" She crossed her arms in front of herself in defence taking half a step back, she wasn't guilty of his accusation but maybe he was harbouring a grudge about the scissor thing earlier.

"Don't lie to me!" Naruto's voiced raised a pitch, his face reddened in rage. "I saw you lift that knife above my head at breakfast! I could see your reflection in the window!"

A bunch of people were now looking at them in concern and that had her shifting on her footing as well as her character, distractedly.

Naruto almost broke character, wondering if he should let go and laugh it off but before he could, Sasuke stepped into the little bubble.

"Is everything okay?" He looked like he was attempting to break the scene but Ino turned to him then back at Naruto her head bowed in shame.

"The truth is, Naruto... I love Sasuke now." She declared before turning and throwing herself at Sasuke who didn't bother putting his arms around her and almost huffed out a disgusted reply.

"No fucking way..." Naruto barely whispered out loud enough for people to hear. He couldn't believe Ino had roped Sasuke into the scene at least as a prop. He stifled a roguish grin and took a deep breath. "But...but I love Sasuke!" he declared right back at her, his open palm slamming up against his chest vehemently.

The little crowd that had gathered to watch gasped, but best of all was the slack-jawed expression on Sasuke's face, it was even more rewarding than Ino's exaggerated jaw-drop.

Laughter from his own mouth broke the scene for him and he let his hand go up and rub the back of his head almost bashfully. "Looks like you're done and I really can't anymore... Ino close your mouth before a fly gets in." he chuckled.

"I, um, okay, like, take five, everyone. Like, cut or whatever." A pause then an irate, "Scram!" Ino snapped at the people when they persisted hoping to nose into their business. They scattered to do the jobs they'd been given. "Whoa Naruto, ever thought of writing a drama? I'm sure you'd make great soap operas."

Naruto almost winced at that, then chuckled again. "I'm not a drama person myself, I never figured you'd be so unfamiliar with the genre, though." He carried on the conversation effortlessly.

It earned him a laugh and a grin from Ino. "I had fun. We should do this again sometime, maybe over drinks." She wandered over; crossing from the changing stall Sasuke stood next to the light up mirror Naruto was in front of.

This time he had to physically restrain a wince. "Sorry Ino, but I don't role play in public places."

She sidled over, made him sit in a chair and started on make-up. "Then how about dinner? My place." Though her eyes skated through the mirror to take in Sasuke's stiff posture. He hadn't moved an inch during the banter, sticking there as if he were a fly on the wall – something he frankly had way too much presence for at the moment.

This time Naruto did wince. He could tell that the reason she was asking him was because Sasuke's gaze was following his every move, sharply, and she was hoping to get a (probably jealous) reaction out of the black-haired man.

Naruto tilted his head then looked up at her, making eye contact for a few long seconds, the look made her stop and gaze back. When he was sure he had her attention he sighed. "I'm sorry to break it to you, love, but I'm a man's man."

She stilled. "Oh."

"Yup, strictly-dickly for me." He added.

"My bad." She said, her eyes now the size of the moon, her cheeks actually flushed with embarrassment.

"Yup. I'm straight as a Twizzler."

She snickered at that, her shoulders relaxing and he smiled, allowing her comfort in hiding in his humour.

"Gayer than the pride parade in San-Fran, sans censor."

She snorted, putting her stippling brush down, leaning against his seat, trying not to - and failing at - doubling over. He simply smiled as he watched her slowly crumple to the floor, laughing while holding her stomach.

"Also, I could tell you're trying to prank me, pay whoever you have to for that bet because I am not falling for that dress-the-newbie-stupid initiation." He added.

She straightened up, red in the face, tears in her eyes. "You knew?"

"The whole time." He nodded. She took a deep breath that was probably meant to steady her but then Naruto added, "Oh, yeah! Gayer than a school of male dolphins on Viagra."

And she fell over laughing.

By the time Tenten from wardrobe entered the room and she looked from Ino practically in tears from laughing and Sasuke stiff as a board still reeling from the pretend confession earlier and all the following horrid jokes and something else. He struggled to subdue a memory stirring in the dank and dark depth of his past.

"Do I want to know?" Tenten asked.

Ino shook his head but Naruto was already off on one again. Sasuke's eyes touched on golden hair and a bright grin of unbelievable megawatts. _It's him._ A memory buried deep down stretched and unfurled.

"Depends, are you going to hit on me in a failed attempt to make Sasuke jealous and then crumble to pieces at bad jokes?" Naruto asked her. _It is him_. Naruto is _that_ boy.

"Uh... no?" she answered unsurely.

"Good, then you won't end up like her." Naruto gestured to Ino who was still rolling on the floor laughing her ass off, gasping for air. Naruto then pointed at Ino and pretended to take a hit from a joint and exhale imaginary smoke. A gesture that Ino caught from the corner of her eye and a fresh wave of laughter racked her body.

Tenten looked at Naruto then shook her head with a smile.

"Namikaze." Sasuke let the words fall from his lips before he could stop it and Naruto jerked in his seat, his blue eyes meeting his own gaze in the mirror.

Sasuke expected any emotion from pure hatred and resentment to pain but the fact that the face held unmasked disbelieve, pain and... a sort of vulnerability cut through him deep as if he's walked into a sharp wire held horizontally across his chest.

Breathing was getting difficult, his vision hazy. _The blond, six-year-old boy had tears in his eyes, but they were angry tears. Full of frustration at being captured, livid at being so easy to subdue—_

"Sasuke! There you are! Juugo is late. Something's wrong with his dog, he got into some food that was not meant for dogs, and he ate it, and they're at the doctor's, everything is in upheaval. Karin and I are going, are you coming?" Suigetsu hovered at the door, shuffling impatiently but Sasuke couldn't move, he was struggling with the onslaught of history that was unravelling before him.

"Uh, hey, baby Uchiha." The soft scratchy voice – it was like a sprinkling of fairy dust. The fact that the man was making him think of fairy-tale nonsense shook him where he stood.

Sasuke's eyes met a hand waving in front of his face, Tenten's hand, through the fingers he felt his heart snag on what was generally a gentle touch of that brilliantly blue gaze. But now it was a jagged gaze of a pool hardened by exposure to minus temperature. He didn't have time to dwell on it, though.

Suigetsu was before him, shaking him by his grip on his shoulders. "Dude."

"I... Yeah." He muttered numbly and let an exasperated Suigetsu drag him away.


	4. Intrinsic Talent

**4\. Intrinsic Talent**

Sasuke sat in the backseat of Suigetsu's car silently bemoaning the fact that he wouldn't get to watch Naruto in action, not that he'd admit it out loud. He just wanted to see what the big deal about Naruto was. After all the praise he'd heard and the sudden improvisation session Naruto had slapped down with someone as flakey and inexperienced as Ino as his partner.

"What's with that face you're making Sasuke?" Karin spoke up from the front passenger seat. "It's so unattractive."

Suigetsu tried to hide a laugh in a cough. Ever since Sasuke had stopped forcing his embarrassingly somewhat mob-boss mentality on them after they graduated high school, Suigetsu always got a kick whenever someone put Sasuke down in front of him. That's not to say he wasn't on Sasuke's side, he was there when in counted but whenever there was a punch line on Sasuke Suigetsu was in the front row clapping.

Keep laughing like that and you might lose one of those fingers you're pretending to cough into, 'Getsu. Sasuke thought to himself, darkly. Purposely using the pet-name Karin had started using for him a couple of years ago, when they had apparently started dating. How had I not seen it?

"It's Naruto, for sure." Unfortunately for Sasuke, while Suigetsu wasn't the brightest star in the night sky he was definitely the sharpest sword in the arsenal. While he wasn't good at most academic activities, Suigetsu was unbelievably good at observation and never over or under estimated people, including himself. He was a self-aware realist with a penchant to play the fool. "You should see the way his eyes follow that ass. Sasuke is this a late experimental phase? Are you gay? Or is it a just Naruto thing?"

"I think it is a Naruto thing. We were at Tsunade-baa-chan's place and he got hit on three times! Once by Neji!" Karin added with a self-satisfied grin on her face.

Suigetsu grinned back at her. "As far as I can tell Sasuke is basically asexual. What, his brain tickles your fancy, Mr Uchiha?"

"What brain?" Sasuke bit out and the two in the front seat shared a look of amusement. To think just chatter about Naruto would get a rise out of him.

"Oh! Did you hear what Naruto called him? Baby Uchihahahahahahaha!" Suigetsu cracked up before he could finish the sentence.

"Oh, haha. Yuck it up while you can. When I get my law degree I'll sue your asses into the ground." Sasuke threatened half-heartedly.

"On what grounds, baby Uchiha?" Karin challenged.

"Defamation of character, mental and emotional harassment!"

"With what proof?" Karin pushed as she peeked over her seat

Sasuke smirked as he slid in his seat, getting comfortable. "Oh, don't worry Karin, I'll manage something, somehow."

Karin took a second then snickered. "You know, Sas, I don't think the law wants you on their side."

"Maybe not...but they'll need me." Sasuke looked out the window, his mind on Orochimaru's unofficial business.

"Anyway, so the thing is, I lied... Nothing's wrong with Juugo's dog." Suigetsu interjected so casually Sasuke and Karin almost nodded their head in acknowledgement of his words before they realised what they were listening to and froze.

"Then what the fuck are we doing here?" Karin yelled and Sasuke couldn't help agree with her.

"Saving someone else... Another wounded puppy." Suigetsu said as he parked the car after having gone round the block a few times and turned so he was looking at Sasuke through the gap in the front seats. "Sasuke you can't be interested in Naruto."

"Why not? He is gay." Sasuke let out, despite not wanting to lay his interest in the blond out in the open. Being told he couldn't pursue it was grating at him like an itchy sweater.

Karin softly wondered aloud. "He's gay? I thought he was bi."

"I'm pretty sure he's pan." Suigetsu contributed.

"But—"

"Excuse me, I need to go back to set." Sasuke opened the door and two hands, each from a different person, shot out and grabbed at his hooded navy sweatshirt.

"Sasuke, you can't date my cousin, that will make us related and I don't like that one bit!" Karin squawked out passionately.

"Really Karin? I'm sure you'd love to call him brother-in-law. Buuuuut I'm pretty sure Naruto is seeing someone. Someone Hyuuga." Suigetsu smirked at her.

"He is not, baka!" Karin rubbed at her forehead. "Hinata is just a friend."

"Not from where I sit across them at the bar every Saturday, baby." Suigetsu pursed his lips at her in the way she normally did at him. Every Saturday?

"Naruto isn't into shy, voluptuous women, 'Getsu. He likes quiet, arrogant, contemplex, dreamy—" she cleared her throat at being nudged by Suigetsu. "Case in point both his exes, Utakata and Gaara."

"He never dated either of them!" Suigetsu protested

"Gaara and he spend an awful lot of time together for just friends." Karin pointed out.

"In that case, he wouldn't be an ex, he'd be a current, Karin!"

"Oh but if he's flirting with Hinata every Saturday...Naruto is a one-woman-man, or a one-man-man."

"A man's man?" Sasuke offered softly.

"Yeah!" Karin then looked at Sasuke and frowned. "Wait, who told you that?"

"He did..."

"He told you that? Aw, crap." Karin looked at Suigetsu and frowned, her voice lowered as if Sassuke wasn't there. "Getsu, do you think Nars likes Sas?"

"Well, Sas looks like he likes Nars." Suigetsu offered.

Sasuke wanted to shut them up, he really fucking did but he also really wanted to hear all the information they were spilling, stuff he's been mulling over for a week. For the first time in years, he was grateful he hadn't just locked them up in Orochimaru's basement and burned the house down.

"I'll make you guys a deal, you guys let me go now and I'll host a drinking game at my place this Friday where you can discuss the pros and cons of me being somehow related to Karin and I'll pay for the booze, okay?"

Karin and Suigetsu stared at him in surprise.

"You really want to ask him out? Dude, I was just kidding when I suggested..." Suigetsu's humourous start to the sentence trailed off at the unimpressed look on Sasuke's face. "Yeah, no, okay sure. Your mother and I-" he gestured to Karin and himself. "Will make sure you hook him good."

"Hook him good? Really, 'Getsu? What is your suggestion? Mix-tapes and whipped cream?"

"It worked for you."

Sasuke scoffed and exited the vehicle, to return to the studio by foot. This was more information than he wanted.

Karin popped her head out the window and called after him. "Sasuke, don't be mean to Naruto. He deals with enough without having to deal with your princess-ass!"

His right temple starting to throb, I just want some information.

He wasn't sure how he would get through Friday night's booze-fest, but he could easily glean the right material from them in what he called 'the window of opportunity'. That perfect time to interrogate between drunk and blackout.

 _The trees rustle in the wind as the view pans away from them to a light-haired male entering a police station in a specified fictional location named Konoha. The cars lined outside showcased the emblem for KPD printed._

 _He approaches the reception desk. "Hey, I, I'm looking for someone who can help me." The blond looked straight into the camera his eyes a wide panicked blue. "I, I, I- I just came to town and, uh." He looked around then back to the person at the reception, the camera now sideways. "I don't remember who I am."_

 _The receptionist's eyes go wide._

"And cut." Itachi leant over to get the tape replayed as Ino hovered around Naruto playing with his hair.

"That's perfect," Itachi said as he came up to Naruto.

"I want to try something different, though. Do you mind?" Naruto piped up from the set, purposely ignoring Ino as she fidgeted with his outfit and face, a latent professional habit he'd developed in the last three days or so of blocking and rehearsing.

"What are you planning?" Itachi asked.

"A little more show-to-tell." Naruto got up and walked to the chair his folder of manuscripts and other sketches sat. He pulled out a sketch in unnecessarily orange ink and pushed it to Itachi.

The boy returned to set and leant up against the plaque that read Konoha Police Department, 7th Precinct.

Itachi resisted rolling his eyes, but he did close them for a second of sharp bemusement. _Fine, I'll play._

Itachi but went back to his seat next to the cameraman. "Focus the camera on the centre of that sign."

 _The blond man grinned viciously as he tore into a bar of chocolate. He took out his cell phone that was still on with the image of a person taken from a security camera._

 _He finished the chocolate, let the wrapper drop and he checked his face in the frontal camera, his expression suddenly tense, he dropped the expression with a dismissive shake of his head and tried for something panicked. He shook his head in disapproval of that one too. Then he opened his eyes wide, a mix of fear and restraint._

 _Bingo. He put his phone away, moved his shirt and hair around then made a running entrance to the Department, looking for the reception and running into the desk, almost crashing into it a little breathless._

 _The receptionist looked at him with eyes wide in surprise. "Can I help you?"_

 _"Hey, I'm looking for someone who can help me." He blond looked straight into the camera his eyes a wide panicked blue, hands fumbling with his wallet. "I- I- I- I just came to town and, uh," He looked around then back to the person at the reception, the camera now sideways. "I don't, I don't remember who I am."_

"Cut!" Itachi was standing next to the camera as he let his eyes study Naruto.

Naruto was grinning at him, a hand on the back of his neck, rubbing nervously. "What do you think?"

That was some excellent thinking. To display the main character's inner feelings right of the bat. And to get a viewer invested in the scenario while also clarifying his not-so-innocent personality from the first frame was...ingenious.

"I like it." Itachi decided. He hummed with a moment of consideration of several angles of the scene some he dismissed, others he collated. Then started listing out orders. "Let's do one more. Pan in from the trees to Naruto leaning against the sign already eating that bar and looking at that image. You there, camera four, get over his shoulder. Get everything we can from his point of view. I want more focus on his line of vision. You, camera three, I want a side view shot of him leaning against that sign."

Itachi spotted Sasuke's stunned face at the break table while he was turning to talk to Shino about sound. A sliver of pride and excitement raced up his sides at having found not just any actor to play his complex protagonist but also one brilliant enough to hold Sasuke's forever disinterested gaze and attention.

It's true that he had his misgivings too, for maybe three minutes at the audition. While Naruto was easy to read in the present, the brilliance of his daily act is a powerful tool. His method of acting is very... indulgent.

It worked because Naruto had perfected emotion control. The unbelievable restrain and careful choking control the man had was... impressive. Naruto's emotions ran deep, to an almost unending reservoir. So his...valve system was tight.

Itachi had seen Naruto handle a very upset, very sassy barista on their first meeting. Handle expertly. His words and actions divided into considerate yet firm. The woman had calmed down and given them a free pastry and now waves at Naruto when she sees him.

His control was focused to such an extent that he'd made this rerouting it something of a talent. He somehow stored emotions and let them guide him. A few coaching classes with an unconventional expert like Jiraiya had done the boy wonders. His talent was a non-obvious crutch he used in his everyday life.

Itachi was sure he had found a star. And if he could help it, they were going to reign all kinds of screens together. Irrespective of Sasuke's positive of negative interest in the star Itachi had discovered.


	5. Newfound Obsession

**5\. Newfound Obsession**

Sasuke wouldn't sleep. He wouldn't eat. He'd spend an unusually long amount of time locked up in the study or the shower. Often he had bouts of passive-aggression whenever Itachi casually asked him what he was up to. And that morning he even ignored a chance at snarking at him which was, by far, the most disquieting bullet point on the list.

Itachi was starting to worry; and while worry and Sasuke were familiarly adjacent concepts in his mind. He couldn't bring himself to ask the moody man straight-up what the problem was.

So he decided for subterfuge.

First, he would call Naruto about an idea he would make up some changes they could make on the script. Then he would invite the young man over for lunch to discuss character development – something the boy was very fond of – and possibly steer the conversation to an interrogation on Sasuke's character development.

Naruto was a simple conversationalist; he didn't prepare what he was going to say beforehand. He generally steered the conversation to light to light topics.  
He made everything up on the spot so as to not delve too deep, Naruto could talk for hours but never stray close to anything of telling importance.  
And he did it all with a convenient air-headed look that confused even Sasuke. This behaviour took a specific amount of tact and dedication. Both things he can definitely place in his qualities-to-admire column.

Itachi found it easy to respect the boy. He had seen the mind behind those eyes. Behind those eyes of blue was a heart of blue, and an art that was so fucking blue that it gave Itachi pause for concern.

Itachi found Naruto through his art. He saw a painting on the wall at Tsunade's house. An event she had hosted then promptly got smashed at leaving the gala to be expertly handled by her secretary and business-wife Shizune. He spotted the painting of a blue butterfly climbing, tearing a struggle out of a cocoon of stark white and blackened shadows that made the cocoon look more like it was a texture more likely spun and weaved by a spider than a caterpillar.

Another thing to worry about; That boy had, on more than one occasion, lied to him. Barefaced. Actually, no. Not barefaced. With a grin.

Not the playfully cheerful one either. That horrific façade of a grin large enough to eclipse the sun – dousing all in an eclipse of mendacities – his honest eyes closed to the world. It was pretty easy to fool others, people were usually too self-absorbed to notice all the subtle shades involved in and was clearly a building conflict of epic proportion brewing behind those eyes of blue.

Not about things Itachi could call him out on, never about work or timing. Frankly, Naruto's personal life was beyond his control. In fact, it was none of his business what the twenty-year-old did in his free time. Meanwhile, his professional life was spotless. Not a single black spot in the impressive list of achievements, starting four years ago.

Of all people, though, Itachi, growing up sensitive to the wants and desires of other people, whether they wanted things from the world in general or from him, Itachi had gotten good at reading people. Just like Naruto who was sensitive to others strife.

But Itachi felt... needed. And being needed was very different from being wanted, it was more important than being wanted. He'd known after the first meeting at the coffee shop that he was needed. He moved to dig up on Naruto's past.

If for nothing, then for the safety of his cast and crew, but Kakashi had promptly cut him off. He'd taken responsibly, vouched for the kid. Even told him not to tell the boy he'd spoken in favour of him.

Just when Itachi had picked up his phone to make a call to Naruto now curious about who the boy was himself, there was a knock on his bedroom door.

"Come in." Itachi called out, putting his phone away at the sight of Sasuke standing in his doorway in a pair of navy track pants and a plain white t-shirt with a black 'X' asymmetrically spreading out, the overlapping point of the x was right over Sasuke's heart. "How can I help you, otōto dear?"

Sasuke frowned then sighed. "I'm...having a few friends over."

Itachi's eyes lit up. "Who?"

Sasuke's frown deepened. "The guys from Taka. Who else?"

"Oh. Are you going out or staying in?" Itachi stood up, his mind still lingering on the possible implications of the t-shirt, wondering if Naruto could wear it in the next scene of the show.

"With the amount they're going to be drinking, no one's going anywhere," Sasuke flipped through the pages of the book Itachi had abandoned on his dresser, face-down, still open to a page. "Well, unless you volunteer to drive us to the closest I-need-a-snack store."

"I think we should keep any and all drunken people out of my car at all costs, thank you very much," Itachi said, with a glint of amusement in his eyes and a slight curve to his lips. If Sasuke was avoiding eye-contact by feigning interest in the book Itachi had news for him. "And the closest snack stop delivers." Sasuke was fooling nobody. Not at that moment.

"That's good to know." Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, setting the copy of _All My Sons_ down.

"You don't look keen on today's festivities." Itachi decided to prod. If Sasuke didn't want to be questioned on that, he could run his hand thoughtfully through his hair elsewhere.

Sasuke smiled. "Au contraire, Nii-san, I can't wait."

"Sounds like fun. Allow me to intrude." Itachi got up and ruffled through his wardrobe for a dark maroon sweater that would go over his simple, long sleeved, black V-neck.

"Allow you to–? You can't be serious." Sasuke suddenly looked about the room, as though looking for something to throw at Itachi as a distraction or hoping for someone to interfere but to no avail.

"If you're looking forward to this, then so am I," Itachi said, facing the inside of his wardrobe, the back of him to Sasuke now. He took the quick seconds he required to pull his sweater on to let out a smile at Sasuke's irked huffing and puffing.

Sasuke was shaking his head possibly assuming Itachi was very bored if he was using his little brother for entertainment. "You don't even know my friends that well."

"No better time to get to know them like the present." Itachi declared. "Even better, I'll call a few of my own."

Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo were already at the Uchiha's place when Naruto and Sakura pulled up to the mansion at seven p.m. Kakashi was still lost on the road of life, no surprise there, the man was late for everything. He had probably been late to his own birth too.

Sasuke had stared at them in something akin to horror as his plan to have Karin and Suigetsu spill whatever information they had on Naruto crashed and burned around him. He had been focusing so much on what he would do when he got the chance that it didn't occur to him what he would do if he didn't get the chance.

Itachi had the biggest smile Sasuke had ever seen him wear, like the time he got to eat Sasuke's ice cream when the younger of the two was eight-years-old and too sick for the orange lolly. Almost as if Itachi had known what he had been planning.

There was no way Itachi knew, Sasuke was sure nobody knew about his past encounter with the blond.

Thankfully, as Suigetsu roped Naruto into going in for three back-to-back shots as soon as he entered a new plan sprouted in the back of Sasuke's mind. Maybe he didn't have to wait and wheedle the information from anyone else. Just maybe he could get it all straight from the horse's mouth.

Sasuke took his time, holding onto his second drink for so long it felt warm in his hands, but he couldn't care because in the span of an hour Naruto had gradually gone from fully sober and dressed with three layers of tops to letting people take body shots off him. He took to standing close enough to see everything go down but far enough that he wasn't in danger of pulling Suigetsu off Naruto by his hair and dragging the blond upstairs for some private one-on-one time.

While he found the idea of everyone's lips on Naruto unappetizing, he couldn't do much else but mentally drool at, and thoroughly appreciate the toned body that showed no tan lines whatsoever. The blond had a tattoo around his navel that highlighted exactly where the shot would be taken from. The sight of the tattoo was heavily weighing on Sasuke's new bronzed-god theory. A theory he pretended wasn't his.

When Sakura toppled her shot over on Naruto's abs, Sasuke took the chance without thinking about it.

Uncaring of all else, he leant over and sucked at the dip of Naruto's belly-button and the indent above it between. Blue eyes watched him with an undisguised haunting as Sasuke approached him, licking the line of salt from his neck then stealing the slice of lime from between his teeth. With barely the brushing of lips, Sasuke felt his desire for the blond man strengthen ten-fold.

Sasuke then chased his shot with his long since fizzed-out rum and coke before leaving the shell of the lemon slice in his mouth behind in the discarded glass.

Naruto's blue eyes followed every move with a slight drop of his jaw, a dry swallow of his mouth before his blatantly surprised gaze lingered on Sasuke's lips. The look was a hazy mixture of pure and uninhibited want that lit a fire in Sasuke. A smirk stretched across his lips as the suddenly flustered blond excused himself while muttering something about needing a piss as moved to wipe his body down with the hand towel.

Sasuke attempted to back away to give him some space but Karin the stupid girl was right behind him, looking over his shoulder with a wicked twinkle in her eye and a hand on his back keeping him in place. Hence, when Naruto got off the island table they'd all congregated around he bumped into Sasuke, their noses a millimetre apart, their spirited breaths mingled for a hot moment before Sasuke leant in and pressed his hand to Naruto's forehead.

"You okay there, Naruto?" he asked, letting go of reason for the evening and, instead, taking wicked pleasure in teasing the younger man.

Naruto, to nobody's surprise and Sasuke's delight, rose to the occasion. "Why, are you going to kiss and make me better?" He asked with a grin that would probably be inappropriate in a more public setting. The calling out wasn't lost on Sasuke, his desire to kiss the blond then and there was probably palpable to both men and Naruto was effectively calling him a coward for not going in for the kiss.

Sasuke simply took a step back so he wasn't breathing in Naruto with every breath. "Only in your dreams." He let out and watched blue eyes boil with unconcealed anger and being called less than kissable.

A second, barely a momentary breath and then the fire was gone, locked away, leaving Sasuke cold where he stood as Naruto moved to the washroom. The loss he felt against his skin was nothing compared to the potent absence in his gut.

He didn't realise when his motives had moved from simply finding out more about Naruto to wanting to know him in the most intimate way possible but he couldn't deny that what he wanted was Naruto and he'd be damned if he didn't get him.

When he looked around the room most of the people were looking at him with absolute amusement, there was not hiding or running from it. So he shrugged. "What? Don't judge me because you don't have the balls to make a move on that."

While Karin, Suigetsu dispersed, unwilling to confront Sasuke about it yet. There was a temperamental huff from the pink-haired girl. "Naruto isn't a 'that'!" she griped as

"I think you're mistaken, Sakura," Itachi intervened. "My brother meant the term in a purely appreciative way, I assure you. Despite what his face allows."

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't care if she's mistaken. I know what I meant."

Sakura bristled, and then stalked toward him threateningly. The girl was eighteen, barely five feet something but she exuded an aura of sudden fury. "I'll warn you once, baby Uchiha." She spat out with a scowl on her face. "I will rearrange your face if you so much as harm a single messy strand of hair on that blond head," she paused to regard Sasuke with begrudging admiration. "Irrespective don't care how long it'll take me to get the jump on you."

One look into those pale green eyes and Sasuke didn't doubt her resolve, yet he couldn't help poking at it. "What exactly is your relationship with Naruto?" He couldn't help it, he wanted to know.

The girl flushed in a mix of embarrassment and anger, her face colouring up nicely and when he threw her a calm smirk she sprang at him. The only reason Sasuke's hair and eyes remained intact was because she was being held back by Kakashi who had only just entered. "Sakura, calm down!"

Naruto ambled back into the room with Juugo and his dog to this scene. "Hey, guys...What's going on? It looks like the aftermath of Scrabble or Monopoly in here."

Sakura shrugged Kakashi's hands off and pulled Naruto out with her. "We're leaving!" she declared.

"What? Now? I was just getting to know Juugo and Tenbin." But they had already left the room and were headed for the front door.

Sasuke's jaw dropped. Could she actually do that? Just whisk Naruto away? It irked him to no end that Naruto didn't fight her to stay, it irked him even more so that he was none the wiser of who Naruto was, only more curious.

 _Time for Plan B._


	6. Plan B for Breaking and E for Entering

**6\. Plan B for Breaking and E for Entering**

Naruto's eyes snapped open.

He'd heard something, he could've sworn it on ten holy books and a shaman

He heard it again, a creaking in his apartment, hallways whispering of sneaky footfalls and doorways accessed.

Sakura was volunteering at the clinic. Konohamaru was studying for his midterms so it couldn't possibly be him drunk and asking for refuge.

Naruto had spoken to Gaara only a few hours ago and the redhead had no plans of driving down to see him. Tsunade-baachan was home with Shizune, a bottle of sake and an animal documentary like every other Wednesday. And Kurama, his big black Great Dane was in bed with him.

Having accounted for all the significant people in his life who knew his address at present and would bother him shamelessly at two a.m. Naruto, for the life of him, couldn't find a reasonable explanation for the soft noises creeping through his house.

Kurama's ears were perked up in clear indication that he'd heard the sounds too, so Naruto was definitely not crazy or dreaming.

First, his breathing sped up, his blood freezing in his veins with panic. Then he took a breath, suddenly felt a wash of calm as his best friend nuzzled his fisted left hand in a latent attempt to comfort. He sat up and placed a hand on Kurama's head then placing a finger to his lips. His friend sniffed as if offended that Naruto would assume Kurama would be stupid enough to make a sound.

It had been a hot minute since Sasori had last tried to make contact, but it seemed about time he did. Naruto winced, it was possible that he'd decided to move the unsettling encounters from randomly ambushing him in his favourite coffee shop, changing rooms and gym lockers to his abode but if that was the case it was time to draw the line and maybe make like Attack on Titan and build a wall on that line to keep the crazies out.

Naruto got out of bed, quiet as a predator, forgoing his slippers so as to keep his footsteps mum. He reached into his bureau, slipping out a small black gun from under his least dishevelled pile of laundry. He checked the magazine and safety lock before stepping out into the hallway, padding softly into the living room.

There was a figure in his living room, slinking about at the edges like a cat. His back was to Naruto as he observed the paintings hung up on the walls.

Naruto knew who it was, of course he did. Baby Uchiha had been giving him the strangest looks. First they were purely quizzical but soon they transformed to downright curious. Those dark eyes were trying to drill through his walls, as if waiting and wanting Naruto to be the first to admit remembering him.

Naruto scowled at his back silently, he crossed the living room in three long soft steps, the gun in his hand again. The dark-haired man was crouching beside the couch looking at the photo frames lining a side table, Naruto pressed the barrel of the gun to the back of Sasuke's head.

"You better have a good reason for breaking into my apartment, baby Uchiha." Naruto's voice was scraping the floor, a tone low and calm.

"Is that a gun?" Sasuke put his hands up to show he was unarmed, he turned, the gun now pointing between his eyes. "Why do you have a gun?"

"For bastards who sneak into my house uninvited." Naruto took a deep breath then threw down the gauntlet. "Twice."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "You remember..."

"As if I could ever forget." Naruto spat out, his face twisting in fury, the words a deep rumbling coming from his chest. "The moment you entered my life, it went to hell. I lost everything - everyone!"

Sasuke's eyes dropped to the gun where it shook slightly, Naruto's grip was blanching his fingers, turning them white at the knuckles. Neither of them could tell whether they were white because he was forcing himself to keep it pointed at Sasuke's face or fighting to move it away.

"I never did any of that to hurt you, Naruto." Sasuke shuffled backwards, his calves pressing against the little table he has been looking at. "I was just trying to stay alive."

"I'm not delusional. I know that. I was just collateral damage." Naruto's voice was back to calm, but the lace of fury wasn't lost, just buried again as he let the gun drop, pointing to the floor. Then, in a flash, his fist was meeting the side of Sasuke's face.

Sasuke groaned, the punch had been strong enough to launch him like a rocket. His mind felt like a clattering of empty vessels, his teeth were exactly that, his eyes - a flare of starburst behind closed lids. He's been thrown back and to his right, sprawling on the couch like a ragdoll.

 _For a twenty-year-old that was a strong fucking punch._

Then, there was a cooling press on his cheek.

He opened his eyes to meet blue gates that had been shut tight and dead bolted. All trace of anger, just gone. The change unsettled him enough that when he glanced sideway his breath caught in his throat.

There was a dark, moving shadow stalking around behind Naruto and Sasuke had to force himself to breathe because the black-coated mutt looked like a hell-hound to his shaken mind. Those yellow eyes studied his every movement.

Naruto sat down on the coffee table facing Sasuke's prone form. He ran his hands through his hair and it stood on end like an explosion.

"Explain yourself."

Sasuke knew he wasn't being asked for an explanation for his most recent actions.

Naruto was giving him a choice, to choose to explain why he was there at 2:43 AM and escape, leaving a greater wedge between them than the one he'd created fifteen years ago. Or to explain everything from the start and put the events behind them.

Sasuke found the decision easy. Not only did he want to get it off his chest, but also he wanted to bridge the gap between himself and Naruto. His choice was a no brainer.

"They came to our house to kidnap Itachi. Itachi - the genius prodigy with a full ride to college in his lap at the age of 15. They wanted to use him, send him to a prestigious school and help them kidnap other rich kids to ransom. But they got me instead." Sasuke pulled himself up, to a sitting position, folding his legs under him.

Naruto sighed, ran a hand through his hair again, it looked messier. "Are you hungry?"

"What?" Sasuke didn't splutter but he would've, his eyes and mind still on the messy hair, wondering how it'd look if he got to mess it up.

"I have some Chinese and I'm starving! Come on, you can talk while I heat up the leftovers." Naruto got up and helped Sasuke up. He then led the way to the kitchen. The dog hung back to sniff at Sasuke and circle him a few times. "Oh this is Kurama. He'd bite your arm off if you were carrying a weapon so good thing you came unarmed."

"Why on earth would I come armed?" Sasuke asked sullenly, then voiced another question. "Wait, who visits you while armed in the middle of the night?"

"My pimp."

Sasuke's head snapped up, gaze shifting from keeping an eye on the suddenly wagging tail of Kurama to the back of Naruto's head as he dug through the refrigerator.

"My dealer."

His eyes grew to the size of the moon.

"And you."

Sasuke planted his hands on his hips and scowled. "Haha. You're a fucking riot."

Naruto threw a grin at him that arrested him at the doorway. "That I am."

They sat at the island counter, side by side. Eating, being rather civil considering the gun on the counter and the swelling Sasuke's cheek.

"I was being stubborn." Sasuke started suddenly. Wanting to get it over soon as. "My parents were going out for some pseudo-business dinner with their friends. Itachi was staying back in his school for some festival related things I was ten and I wanted to stay at home and enjoy the freedom of ice cream for dinner while watching Simpson's with the neighbour's cat"

Naruto smiled at the noodles in his plate but didn't disturb, the slightest incline of his head showed he was listening, closely.

"There was scratching at the door at 9 and I figured hey, my playmate is early, so I open the door to a Tabby cat licking its leg luxuriously."

Naruto's laugh made Sasuke smile. Naruto's smile helped him forge ahead.

"I saw a shadow, a silhouette behind the cat, and that's that. Next thing I know I'm being hoisted groggily out of the trunk of a car. I don't even know how they drugged me."

Naruto sat back in his seat, it was his turn to watch with wide eyes the back of Sasuke's head that was bent over the plate.

"Holy shit dude, that's like, nothing compared to the way you kidnapped me! You made me think you were my friend!"

Sasuke looked up at Naruto. "Get one thing right, Naruto. Even though we only had a week together, I've never thought of anyone else as a friend the way I think of you. The thought of you kept me alive and sane more times than I can remember in that hell-hole. If I got a chance to go back and do over, I'd still choose to kidnap you." Sasuke held his gaze until Naruto's lower lip falling open got his attention.

When Naruto's jaw slowly loosened even more, Sasuke looked away. _Not yet, Sasuke._

"You need to leave."

"What?"

"You need to get out of my house, right now, you selfish, fucking, bastard." Naruto's words may as well have been a yell with the stunning effect they had on Sasuke but they were actually said very softly into the silence that hung between them.

Sasuke's ears rang and his chest clenched. _No, no, no, no, no! I still need to... I still need you to..._

Naruto stood up and grabbed him by the collar, shaking him like he was a maraca. "The second they realised you kidnapped the wrong kid they almost killed me!"

Sasuke couldn't remember how to breathe. "Wrong kid?"

"What? Did you forget? Pay attention next time you go to kidnap a kid on a swing, Uchiha. That maniac with face tats and silver hair broke my fucking arm when he took my hand to shake it! I was lucky Sasori offered to take me off their hands or else I'd be six feet under before I was six!"

Sasuke's worldview was tilting. He hadn't a clue what had happened to Naruto after he'd brought the boy back to Kisame's with the empty promise for some Ramen. He hadn't even been told he'd grabbed the wrong kid. All this while he'd assumed they'd got the ransom and Naruto had returned home.

The thought of him used to be the only concrete substance of hope he'd held on to. That maybe one day, with the right opportunity, he'd get to return home too. The only reason he had stayed sane in Orochimaru's business had been because he'd played the long game to get out. A game he'd based on a true story he'd witnessed starring Naruto.

"I... I didn't know." Naruto stopped shaking him and was suddenly dragged into a hug that he tensed up against. "I had no idea. I thought you... They didn't tell me... I thought you made it home. The only reason I made it home was because I thought you made it home. All I wanted to do was to get home..."

The softest apology was whispered against golden hair. Repeatedly. Until he gave in. Until he melted and wrapped his arms around Sasuke in return.


	7. Drink Me Down

**7\. Drink Me**

He'd wanted to hash out everything then and there but Naruto had seemingly shut down. His gaze was glazed over and vacant, his expressions either lazy or blank. Naruto had stopped processing or had started processing fifteen years of bitter thoughts about Sasuke and promptly gone into overdrive and burnt out.

Sasuke hoped it was the latter. Whichever it was Sasuke had had no clue how to go further other than ask awkward questions with obvious answers and make unnecessary comments.

"How many roommates do you have?"

"Just the one."

"Where is she?"

"Volunteering."

"Nice dog."

"Kurama is mostly friendly."

"Are you-"

"Sorry, I'm really tired. I'm just gonna go to bed. You can take Sakura's room if you'd like. She won't be home until noon." Offering him Sakura's room for the night.

Sasuke remembered his immediate relief at the fact that the two had separate bedrooms. He hadn't realised how much the question of their relationship had been niggling at him. Knowing that Naruto was not in any kind of romantic relationship with the pink-haired woman had put him to momentary easy.

Sasuke had refused to stay, though. For starters, he wouldn't be able to sleep knowing Naruto was in the very next room. He also still had plenty of work to do. And lastly, and most importantly, Itachi would be a nuisance if he found out what Sasuke had been up to.

Naruto's unusually subdued and unresponsive behaviour had him concerned but he figured more so hoped all he needed was some space and time to think.

Though, he knew they would have to sit down and talk things out. It was clear to him that Naruto hadn't ever forgotten him, simply avoided him because he thought…

 _Goddamnit, he thought I'd used him._

Sasuke stopped writing his notes and grabbed at his head. Letting his forehead touch the desk.

It hadn't even been a conscious decision on his part to hug Naruto and hold onto him for hours after apologising. It hadn't even been a complete thought. It had just transpired between them on its own. A natural reaction to instinct.

Sasuke felt heat burn under the skin of his face. But the blond man had let him. And if there was one thing he could say about last night that wasn't pointing towards something worrying then it was that the boy seemed to welcome his touch. And that was enough to hold on to, for now.

When he's set out to pursue Naruto as a romantic interest it hadn't occurred to him that he'd have to fight fifteen years of misconceptions birthed in the mind of a five-year-old. Ideas that had only gotten stronger and more mangled with time.

Sasuke couldn't believe that he'd been sitting around, thinking of the blond as a symbol of hope, hoping to have finally found someone that didn't know him and hence would allow him the opportunity to get close. Except…

 _Damnit! I fucked up before I had anything to fuck up._ He smacked his head against the desk a few times, hoping to rid himself of the turmoil he was entirely unfamiliar with. _I fucked up school, family, friends. And now this one thread of hope that I fucked up before I even knew there was something to fuck up. The realisation sent him flying up from his seat._ He left the study, a frown marring his features.

 _Day drinking is okay because it's a weekend._ He decided, pouring himself some coconut rum spraying it up with some sprite and sipping at it.

He had thought he'd found a blessing in Naruto. He was amusing, light, bright, lively. Everything Sasuke came to realise he needed in his life that time he'd locked himself in the study for a week. It was as though a locked door in his heart had suddenly sprung open at the realisation that what he wanted from the world existed. And was within reach. That the drink he had been thirsting for forever had been created and set in front of him in a bottomless cup.

Sasuke had also been pretty pleased to find that the blond didn't know who he was. He had hoped to make a better impression on the man once he got the chance. Except that his chance at a first impression had come and gone fifteen years ago and the outcome was that Naruto was very unimpressed.

He couldn't imagine where he could possibly go from the point they were at. If there was one thing he was afraid of it was that Naruto might start avoiding him rather than talk it out with him. He hoped fervently that that wouldn't happen.

The ringing of an old-fashioned bell incorporated into a security system rang through the empty house. Sasuke took towards the door slowly.

Blue eyes clear and alive met his own when the door opened.

"Hey…" Eyes dropped to the empty drink glass still in his hand, ice sitting at the bottom of it. "Drinking already?"

"Just about pour one. Join me?"

Naruto hesitated and Sasuke held his breath. Naruto was a creature of instinct he would normally not hesitate. He'd have a clear yes or a no. "Um, yeah, okay."

Still wrestling with the surprise appearance, Sasuke let him in and got to pouring a couple of drinks. Sasuke clinked their glasses softly after handing Naruto's drink to him.

"What are we celebrating?"

"I'll tell you later. First you. What brought you here?"

"You."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "Me?"

"Last night."

Sasuke had assumed that Naruto wouldn't want to talk about it. He's expected some scooting around the topic. But clearly, that was not the case. Naruto was taking the lead in this encounter. "What about last night?"

"You came to my apartment. You broke in. Obviously not for money. What were you looking for?"

Sasuke looked away. They'd been so busy immersed in the past the last time they'd met... That they hadn't even dealt with the present reason for Sasuke to have broken into Naruto's apartment.

"The door was left op-"

"Bullshit."

Sasuke regarded Naruto carefully, the younger man wasn't thrown off by Sasuke's answer, neither was he hesitant anymore. He wasn't even a little unsure of the reason he was standing there.

Naruto's fists were clenched slightly.

 _Angry? No. He's tensed... Not for violence. More like... determination._

It looked to Sasuke that the blond was ready for an mission of sorts. He was expecting resistance. Sasuke was surprised yet again that Naruto could tell he'd go with trying to bullshit his way out of the situation. And Naruto had readied himself for it.

Again, where did his excellent perception come from? Was Naruto reading him? Or was he reacting on instinct?

"I wanted to know more about you," Sasuke admitted after taking another sip.

"I have a profile online." Naruto simply held his drink in his hand.

"Not that kind of things."

"Then what kind of things?"

Sasuke pursed his lips together and finished his drink.

"Oi, prince of darkness." Naruto snapped his fingers in front of Sasuke "I'm talking to you. Earth to- Don't even think about coming up with a new lie while I watch you, you bastard!"

Sasuke frowned. "What are you, psychic?"

"What are you? Psycho?" Naruto mocked his tone with a silly face.

He could honestly listen to the blunt banter all day. Sasuke felt a rush at how well the blond was able to understand certain things by reading the slightest variations in Sasuke's expression.

The fact that he'd drawn a gun at him was also rather thrilling to Sasuke. And to make things better he'd also clung to him for at least an hour. Despite having spent very little time with this man... Each minute with him made his blood race. His mind spin and he loved it.

Sasuke pushed down at the flutter of amusement. This man was too much. He made it impossible for Sasuke to think straight and stick to any kind of plan while dealing with him. It was all on instinct. A power play that required speed as well and Naruto was unafraid to take him on, even with something as simple as making eye contact from across the room or encountering each other in the men's room was a silent moment overflowing with unsaid things.

An idea popped in his mind like a Christmas cracker.

It wouldn't be crazy to think that Sasuke was the only one affected by the tension between them. Hoping to test the idea Sasuke shifted from leaning on the bar to standing straight, legs apart in a more aggressive stance. Naruto immediately moved, tensing and moving his weight to the balls of his feet, reading the change in atmosphere fluently. Sasuke was starting to understand how truly sensitive Naruto was. Especially to him.

If Naruto was sensitive to him… that could surely be used in Sasuke's favour. Sasuke took a few slow steps towards Naruto. A small smile forcing it's way to him lips on it's on. Naruto's surprised eyes dropped to his lips.

"I want to know more intimate things about you. Like... Are you the little spoon or the big spoon? Do you top or bottom? Do you like coffee or tea in the evenings? Would you prefer ice-skating or surfing? Boxers or briefs? Cats or dogs?" Each question brought him physically and mentally closer to his goal. His tone dropped, even though there was no reason to whisper, Sasuke wanted the words to convey the intensity of the extreme curiosity he held towards the blond man standing only inches away. "What did you dream of last night? Do you like to spend weekends in bed or outdoors? What do you see yourself dedicating your life to?"

A distant alert siren had started going off in Naruto's head when Sasuke offered him a drink. He'd ignored it in favour of forging ahead and getting down to business.

But then Sasuke had taken up this ridiculous endeavour tease him, by slowly backing him against a sofa and whispering simple get-to-know-your-date questions in a suggestive tone the siren had turned into a fire alarm.

First, he'd basically tongue-fucked his belly button the other night when they'd done body shots... _and now this!_

Not ready for the kind of information and admission he was staring in the mouth, Naruto simply gaped at the dark-haired creature of temptation in front of him. A colour slowly climbing his neck with a flush of some intense emotion.

"I am so very attracted to you, Na-ru-to," Sasuke said simply, raising a hand to tug slightly, playfully at his hair. The action made Naruto's stomach kick up a flippity-floppity fuss. "And I want to know more about you."

When Naruto didn't reply Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed.

"You must know how attractive you are... Naturally, I was attracted." Sasuke sighed. He making it sound like him being attracted to Naruto was a natural law of physics or chemistry. The subtext was screaming 'you were made in the specific way that would intrigue me so I can't help it' at Naruto and it was making his world spin faster.

"Will you say something already?"

"Um...Okay."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. That's it."

"Don't you have anything else to say?" Sasuke's eye seemed to spasm.

Naruto would have been amused at the reaction if the situation were anything other than an impromptu confession of being liked by this intense person who… admittedly wasn't the absolute heartless, kidnapping, criminal d-bag Naruto had assumed he was. He crossed his arms between them in a last line of defence. "Not to you, you fucking weirdo."

Sasuke looked only mildly troubled by Naruto's reaction.

"I guess you've got a point."

"Hell yeah, I do." Naruto's voice sounded rough to his own ears. "You have an allergy to asking or something?"

"Asking would have blatantly suggested that I was interested."

"Well, no shit. Because you are."

Sasuke sighed maybe realising there was no escaping Naruto's cut and dry method of dealing with issues. Clearly, Sasuke was used to playing the long game. Waiting things out. Having the last laugh.

Naruto felt a bit satisfied that he was forcing the highly neurotic man to go through the motions of his slash and burn method. They were the contrast of killing someone with poison while having an air-tight alibi and killing someone by shooting an arrow through their eye.

Naruto was all about confronting the real issue behind the mask.

"Yes, I am." Sasuke relented. "Now, let me take you out."

Naruto looked at him for a long time. "What makes you think I'll say yes?"

"Honestly?"

"Honest is always a good way to go..." Naruto prompted, his folded arms loosening.

"I'm not sure you will considering you think of me as the person who walked you into hell when you were five..." Sasuke's hand came up again and tugged at another blond lock. "I'm just hoping really hard you'll give me a chance."

Naruto's first thought was that Sasuke did not seem like he was doing this to toy with him. His second thought was waking up that morning wanting to know how Sasuke had made it out of the kidnappers he'd fallen in with when he was ten. And his third as his eyes dropped to the slow smirk on those lips was an embarrassing fantasy of those hot lips and tongue on his stomach for other reasons than a body shot.

Naruto's eyes dropped to his arms as he contemplated the rather surprisingly earnest request. Naruto couldn't deny his own attraction now that he wasn't looking at Sasuke with fuck-you-for-ruining-my-life goggles and realised the boy himself had no real control over the conditions of their first meeting.

If truth be told, he was starting to understand why Sasuke had implied that it felt natural for to be attracted to Naruto.

Now, Naruto had never turned his back on any opportunity to enjoy himself. He'd realised very young that life had the possibility to be shortened in a heartbeat. He'd rather live with regrets than what-ifs, or even worse yet not live at all.

The same funda extended to his love or sex life.

He looked at the drink still in his hand and then slowly looked up at Sasuke who was so rigid it made Naruto feel bad for keeping him waiting for so long, _the poor guy's back and shoulders must be…_ Naruto shrugged it off. _After what he did to me a sore back is nothing._

Naruto threw back the drink in his hand then conceded. "Fine."

He pushed a finger to Sasuke's lips when they started growing into a smirk Naruto was getting familiar with. "Not so soon, Romeo. I'll make you a deal. If you can drink me under the table you get to take me out."

Sasuke's eyes flashed with a mix of emotions, relief, excitement, challenge.

"But, if I win…" Naruto grinned. " _I_ take _you_ out."

Sasuke's face set seemed to shift, eyes narrowed, lips curled. He looked like he was ready for a game of chess. "I've already had two drinks, so technically…" He plucked the empty glass out of Naruto's hand with an aggravating smirk. "I'm winning."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Hold on a second, that's not fair!"

"By the way, congratulations on a great pilot episode..." Sasuke headed to the bar to fix both of them new drinks. "My brother tells me the testing went well. Looks like a green light for season one."

Naruto's ears rang. _A great pilot episode… A green light for season one._

Naruto was up to the bar in an instant, vibrating like an electric shaver left in a bucket. "You better not be lying, baby Uchiha!"

Sasuke handed Naruto the new drink. "To Rasengan."

"To me kicking your ass at a drinking contest _and_ Rasengan." Naruto felt a rush in his ears when he heard the chuckles from Sasuke. Antagonising banter never made him feel so happy before.


	8. A New View

**8\. A New View**

{Naruto's point of view.}

While Sasuke was good at holding his liquor, Naruto was a tank. He grinned at the older man who was glaring at an offending glass he couldn't force unto himself without gagging once it was halfway to his mouth.

Naruto had won and just to prove his point he poured himself a couple of fingers of Bailey's Irish Cream - picking it from the array of bottles around them - to nurse slowly as he watched Sasuke despising that he'd just gained some sort of upper hand in their dance, only to lose it immediately.

He quickly regretted his new drink when he attempted to stand up, though. "What did you pour in my drinks? Everclear?" he asked through a grin of drunk confusion. He was so obviously out of it, he was obviously paying for his win.

"I see how it is, you're just trying to get me all the drunk to so that you can take advantage of me." Words were failing Naruto, but the buzz of alcohol was mostly too pleasant for him to care for his obvious display of dizzy confusion at all.

Instead of replying, Sasuke simply giggled as he watched Naruto struggle with the bar counter he was gripping desperately while slowly lowering back onto the stool he'd occupied.

"Don't laugh at me! You're no better! Fuck you!"

Sasuke was drunk enough to let out a small grin at that, he leant in close, just because he could and whispered against the ear. "Soon enough."

Blue eyes looked up at Sasuke through blond wisps of spun gold hanging in his face. The look in those eyes was sinful. "Promises, promises."

Sasuke, unable to hold back when it came to temptation and this blond man, immediately took a hold of his chin and drew the face in against his, this time lips poised for a kiss. "Promises I intend to keep."

"Or you might whip out like last time."

"I could if you want me to..." Sasuke's inquisition was clear. If you're not ready to kiss, I'll pretend I'm the one who isn't ready.

While that offer was rather valiant, it was a pointless idea. Naruto knew what he wanted now and when he wanted it.

And he wanted it now. He took a breath and pushed forward. Meeting the lips as he grabbed the shirt in front of him to hold Sasuke there. The kiss was nothing, barely a first time brushing of lips…

But then all of a sudden he wasn't holding onto the bar counter, he was sitting on it a bunch of their glasses shoved aside squashed between his hip and a forest of liquors to his left.

His hands gripped tight at the dark hair instead of a dark counter. His mouth was a hot tangle with a cavern of endless tastes and treasures. Somehow the meeting of their tongues was searing into his mind so very sharp.

Sasuke's hands left a heated trail from his waist, hips, then slipping up into the shirt at the base of Naruto's back.

Naruto pulled back ever so slightly, his lips wandering over Sasuke's left cheek as the hands danced up his back, making his back straighten with awareness.

"Hey, you were supposed to drink me under the table, not over it." Sasuke's hands stilled on Naruto, glazed black eyes locked on the neck in front of him. Seeming to deliberate on the possible feel of certain actions.

Naruto was content to let him do his calculations. His mind was spinning too much to focus on a single thought. Until a specific thought came to him, that, yes, those lips do feel great on my skin.

"I see a pattern...but hey, one more time and it might actually become a habit," Naruto muttered, his voice having dropped several octaves to come out sounding rather fucked and kind of drunk.

Sasuke took a moment, then he chuckled against the neck he'd taken to lavishing with attention. The memory of his tongue approaching his belly-button had been burned in both their memories, clearly. "Do you ever shut up?"

"You're just jealous that I have a talent for expressing myself better than you." Naruto rebutted then blinked at the man slotted between his legs, whose hands were wandering up his back again

Sasuke's eyes zeroed in on Naruto's lips when they twitched at the obviously attentive gaze. The alcohol had dulled the man's distancing persona, bringing his truer thoughts to the surface. It was easier to read his want, and his want was apparently Naruto at that very moment. Nothing else. Desire was something Naruto could understand, especially after that kiss. He too desired Sasuke.

The thought fanned to life and licked at him, running his throat dry and other parts full of blood. When was the last time a kiss had consumed him in a moment so much so that he didn't realise he'd been physically relocated?

 _Never. Never before._

Naruto leant away once the thought struck him, his lazy mind was unsure whether he was dizzy because he was drunk or because of the kiss. Sasuke followed him, his lips dropping to Naruto's neck, teeth scraping his collar bone, making Naruto inhale sharply.

He hadn't thought it'd be straight to fire with them. He didn't know straight-to-fire was a thing at all.

"Hey, Sasuke?" Naruto was feeling a coil of fear at how strong a reaction he was having to this man. This man who'd been so reluctant to admit he was interested. What if he would freak out about this when he's sober. But he had asked him out...

Sasuke hummed a questioning response, nudging Naruto's collar aside with his nose to continue his slow exploration, pressing hot lips downwards in no clear path.

"Do all kisses taste like fire?" Naruto asked, deciding to stall for time and make conversation to see how present Sasuke actually was. He felt the smile on the skin over his breastbone.

Sasuke's hand slid up his back, taking the shirt with it. His left hand curled around the back of Naruto's neck and pulled him in for another kiss, this one a slower embrace, less tongue, but with a bruising force behind it. As if to impress upon Naruto his own thoughts.

"This is how I wanted to kiss you earlier today. When I saw you at my door." His whisper was barely audible but it had Naruto trying to grapple with this new burn of desire curling in his abdomen.

"No, seriously," Naruto rasped out, wrestling for breath, surely he would die with lack of oxygen because it evaporated whenever Sasuke did anything remotely attractive. "What did you put in my drink?"

Sasuke chuckled. "This isn't the drink, Naruto. This is us."

He then pulled Naruto's lower lip between his teeth, sucking on it.

Naruto's dark green shirt was now hanging off his neck like an infinity scarf. His breath was stilted on inhales, his hands hadn't moved from the soft black hair in his hands and they'd tighten every now and then. Muscles tensing, being forced to relax and tensing on their own.

Sasuke looked him in the eyes through his lashes as he slowly pulled back, dragging the lower lip out to a stretch and then letting it go.

"How come?" Naruto's blue eyes were lit with more curious now than the swimming doubt. He dipped his head, stealing a kiss of his own. He used his hands to keep Sasuke's face exactly where he wanted it, moving slow and experimentally. Not fire but a flicker of fairy lights in a dark room.

Sasuke smiled into the liplock, he could feel the blatant yet hesitant and searching interest in the kiss and he wouldn't be wrong in saying, "Probably our chemistry."

"I've had chemistry. This isn't just chemistry." Naruto said softly, his eyebrows drawn together in thoughtfulness.

Sasuke let him ponder that as he let his lips wander down his jaw, lightly nudging his head to lean away, making space for his lips to roam the neck he definitely liked a lot. But the second he let his lips lock on the pulse point and suck he was pulled away by the hair at the back of his head. He scowled in displeasure, it felt stark against the pleasure of the moments before and the hoped pleasure to come. "What the-"

"Sorry man, but you gotta buy me dinner first. I'm simple, not easy. There's a difference"

Sasuke didn't want to smile but he did anyway. A question in his gaze again. Naruto had noticed that he'd always looked with a questioning gaze. But for now, he'd give Sasuke the time to form the questions he wanted to ask. Naruto had already signalled that he was generously receptive to questions.

"But tell you what, if I have to have a few hickeys for a scene you can definitely be the one to administer them."

Sasuke frowned, obviously refusing to compromise on the hickey. It was a detail Naruto never argued against before but now that his everyday appearance mattered to a cast and crew of people. It meant two things; no more bites and no more fights.

Sasuke made it clear that Naruto was not escaping this, though. The furrow in his brows a distinct mark that he was also probably sulking about the date he'd tried to orchestrate and lost to the blond.

Sasuke's pleasure at being around Naruto and his want to make sure this newly established whatever was his to keep was evident in the wake of the alcohol-induced barrier-breaking. This sudden streak of possessiveness was clear on his face.

Naruto blinked a few times then grabbed Sasuke's face, pushing the cheeks in with the tight hold and making the lips purse exaggeratedly. Naruto chuckled. "Use your word Uchiha."

Sasuke looked all over his face with another question in his eyes. Then he was attacking Naruto's mouth again. A bringing back of the kind of breathless attraction from before. It flashed across his mind that this was the kind of attraction it'd be so very stupid to let get away.

"I thought someone as controlled as you would want to resist temptations." Naruto offered, trying to put a smothering blanket on their fire. A call to Sasuke's sanity.

"If you're the forbidden fruit. I'll live with my choice, because whatever the price, it'll be well-worth the taste of the fruit." His reply was fluid and didn't miss a beat. Sasuke was getting good at handling the curveballs Naruto was pitching. He made sure the blanket Naruto was putting down was eaten in the raging flames.

Naruto let a long pause linger as he searched the want in Sasuke's face. No hint of embarrassment just naked truth. Unlike Sasuke with Naruto, Naruto was finding it easier every day to read Sasuke, whether with or without alcohol - although this bit helped too.

It didn't take long to realise Sasuke was rather earnest. Naruto felt his cheeks flushes with warmth, embarrassment and excitement and an undercurrent of desire danced within him as he looked away.

Unable to handle the blatant truth in front of him he looked away. He couldn't possibly lie to himself about what Sasuke wanted from him. It wasn't purely physical. It was very much emotional and mental as well.

"You are blushing like a bride," Sasuke said as his teeth ghosted over the flushing cheek.

"Shut up." Naruto groused in residual embarrassment. "You suck at this."

"Talking?"

"Dating!" Naruto shoved at Sasuke's face but he simply came back, letting his mouth wander lower. Nibbling and kissing and sucking at various places.

"So we're dating now?" He mumbled at a deliciously reddened spot over a rib.

Naruto took a shaky breath at Sasuke having his own little mouth trip over his abs. "You're the one to ask me out. Or are you so lost in me that you forgot?"

Sasuke's replying smirk actually gritted at Naruto's unflappable feathers. How dare he be so chill while he's being so obviously…?

"How drunk are you?" He asked finally.

"Not too drunk to stand." Sasuke bit at Naruto's waist and the blond pulled at the man whose hands were now at his lower back, a couple of fingers hooked in belt loops.

"How would you know? You haven't tried."

"I was able to hoist you onto the counter." Grazing teeth leaving a tingling trail up to his left pectoral.

"So that's how I got here?!"

"How drunk are you?" Sasuke pulled back all of a sudden, holding onto Naruto's thighs so he didn't fall backwards off his stool.

"If we were on an aeroplane I'd need an airsickness bag...or three."

"You don't seem very drunk."

Naruto was silent for a minute, his reply then came at a slightly higher pitch. "I'm an actor, Sasuke, it's actually my job to look things I'm not. It's how I feed myself."

Sasuke's jaw fell open.

"...I'm smashed to bits, Sasuke. I couldn't tell you my address even if you turned it into a fill in the blacks or an MCQ. I can see two, no, three of you right now. One at the door..."

"Oh, I'm not Sasuke, I'm Shisui." A new voice offered in an amused tone.

Sasuke's spun around so fast he overshot, almost doing a 270° turn instead of 180°. "Shisui!"

Naruto simply shrugged and distractedly started nibbling on the last remaining peanuts.

Letting the pleasant feeling of having a body that was being very appreciated lull him a bit while his mind raced, going over everything the last few hours had changed in his life.


	9. Kiss and Tell

**9\. Kiss and Tell**

{Sasuke's point of view.}

Sasuke spent five minutes trying to figure out how to possibly manipulate Shisui into being cooperative. But failing that task - by Sasuke being not sober enough for it and Shisui being too sober for it - Sasuke decided to use what generally worked best with Naruto thus far.

A straightforward addressal.

"Shisui, do not tell Itachi."

That seemed to snap Naruto from whatever rabbit-hole he'd fallen into. "Yes, please don't!"

"Why not?" Shisui was smiling pretty wide, eyes crinkled in a friendly manner. "I'm sure he'd be happy for you two."

"Nu-uh, he'll be insufferable about it for sure!" Naruto declared while pointing accusingly at Shisui. The fact that he knew that or at least could tell that by hypothesis, proved to Sasuke that the blond man was smarter than he was letting on most of the time. Or at least that he was an idiot savant, at best.

Sasuke turned around with a small smirk feeling a well of affection. He spied the litter of scattered love bites, all of them in relatively not-visible locations. Not-visible, that is, if Naruto's shirt were on. But of course, his shirt was hanging around his neck, pushed over the shoulder at some point to hang at his back like a hood without the cape.

Is that why Shisui's grinning all about the place? Sasuke couldn't remember when he'd done that. Fuck. This got way out of hand. He reached for the shirt, pulling it in front and down over Naruto's torso, trapping his arms in by his side. He'd wanted to talk, to get to know. He hadn't expected the kiss to turn into an explosion.

Shisui made a clicking noise of disapproval - though the gaze in his eyes had been full of approval.

"That's not how bondage works, Sasuke." The grin he grinned was so charming and playful Sasuke almost didn't connect it to his next words. "I'd be happy to show you both the ropes sometime."

"Whoa, hey! Back the fuck up, new guy." Naruto snapped from his spot as he struggled quite entertainingly to pull his shirt on right. "We haven't even met yet."

Sasuke relaxed when Naruto's shirt began to do it's job just fine.

"Hey," Naruto snapped his fingers in front of Sasuke, "Mister Seventeen-Minutes-in-Heaven, introduce me to your...visitor?"

Sasuke resisted the urge to snicker at the newly assigned nickname and then threw a glare at his thoroughly-entertained cousin who was snickering shamelessly. "Shisui, this is Naruto - Itachi's new star as I'm sure you've heard from him. Naruto, this is Shisui - Itachi's old star and muse. Oh, and our cousin. He decided acting was getting boring and now he farms or something."

Naruto cackled in reply. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Shisui grinned in amusement when he saw Naruto's hands wander down over Sasuke's shoulders and down his chest. "Congratulations on hooking the first season. I heard that the test audience loved you. In fact, I came down to see you in action...however, this wasn't what I had in mind when I thought that."

Naruto laughed so hard he had to lean forward, his chest draping over Sasuke's upper back and shoulders. Sasuke immediately felt better about the rather risqué situation they'd been caught in. Pleasantly surprised and reassured by the fact that Naruto hadn't reacted to Shisui's presence by pulling away and pretending nothing was happening.

He smiled at the familiarity the blond was showing him. He didn't know what changed but there had just been a massive shift between them - in the last few minutes, in fact, and it seemed it would be a shift he liked.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy any performance he puts up," Sasuke admitted. Throwing a questioning look at Naruto. How do you affect me the way you do?

Naruto threw a questioning look back this time. It said, can I help you?

"Who knew younger men was your thing, Sasuke?" Shisui fiddled with his jacket pockets.

"He did, how long now, Sas? Fourteen years?" Naruto teased, fingers running down the side of his face.

Sasuke scowled at him. If the blond was going to start teasing him maybe he should rethink this new shift. However, unable to honestly deny the question he settled for simplicity. "Shut up."

"Very mature." Naruto nodded his approval as he played with Sasuke's hair.

Shisui cackled. "You two are drunk as skunks."

"Yes, but with good reasons!" Naruto said.

"What are these reasons?" Shisui asked.

"I just heard that Rasengan is green-lit for season one!" Naruto kicked his legs and arms out in a celebratory whoop.

Shisui drew closer to the two meant and to Naruto's amusement and Sasuke's great embarrassment he lifted his phone higher into view.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Sasuke protested. "Put that phone away."

"Smile Sasuke!" Naruto instructed, mushing his cheeks in again but this time using one hand on each cheek. Then he pulled at the cheeks outwards to make a weird stretched out line with Sasuke's mouth. Naruto tilted the dark-haired head up and looked down into the distorted face. "Aw, look at that! You look like a Halloween pumpkin gone wrong."

Shisui almost dropped the phone he was holding up because he was giggling too hard. "This is gold."

Sasuke was too busy watching Naruto's face with awe, it had turned red with laughter. He was also too drunk to care that there was going to be video evidence of him. The blue eyes shimmering with obvious humour in front of him was all that mattered.

"Good god, you're beautiful." Sasuke breathed out slowly. He realised he was leaning back into Naruto's lap to keep the captivating face in his sight.

Naruto flushed a deeper red at the sudden compliment. His gold hair, blue eyes and red face made him look unbelievably attractive.

"Holy shit." Shisui's comment stayed in the background where it belonged when Sasuke - instead of giving a damn that he was being caught on tape - reached up with his left hand and pulled Naruto down in a very loose imitation of the Spiderman kiss. He lifted his right hand to flip Shisui off.

It was brilliant, he got to kiss the blond and shamelessly establish that kissing the blond was a thing he did now, proudly.

{Naruto's point of view}

Naruto was unsure where he was but he was in a bed so comfortable he hated that he was slowly growing too uncomfortable in his own body to stay unconscious.

A kick in his throat had him shooting out of bed, looking around blearily and running into a bathroom - disturbing the man already standing at the sink with a toothbrush - so he could regurgitate something vile into the toilet bowl. Probably alcohol.

Fuck, how had he gotten himself in this situation? He couldn't even remember.

His vision blurred with tears when the confusion gave way to an onslaught of pain. Kneeling heavily with his hands braced on the toilet seat he heaved, swaying between wanting to curl into a ball in a physically attempt to stave off the pain and throw up a bunch more.

"Wow, you really didn't want to lose," Sasuke observed as he extended a hand towel dipped in cold water. Wiping at Naruto's face with a hint of amusement on his clearly sober face. "I'm not half as hungover as you are."

Naruto groaned. "Why did you let me pass out?"

"You were difficult to dissuade," Sasuke replied but his eyes were focused on Naruto's chest as he squatted beside him.

"Difficult to dissuade. Thanks, Velma." Naruto huffed, pouting as he submitted to the care being afforded to him, turning to make things easier.

Sasuke's lips quirked. "You are very welcome, Shaggy."

"You could have woken me up," Naruto whined, accepting the cooling care of the towel wiping even at the back of his neck.

"You draped yourself on my upper back and transformed into dead weight. I could do nothing but carry you to the closest bed." Sasuke insisted, fighting amusement.

Naruto's eyes observed all the subtle and unsubtle movement of Sasuke's lips even as he spoke. His memory provided him with a sudden flurry of feelings; those lips on his lips, his neck, his chest and stomach.

"What happened?" The words left him involuntarily. A wistful whisper as he wondered aloud.

Sasuke's lips downturned but ye kept up the low-key sponge bath. "A few things," he said in a cautious voice.

Naruto's hand dropped to the hem of his shirt and lifted it to look at the bruises littering his side and chest. "Looks like a lot of things."

Sasuke's hand stilled, eyes dropping to the arrangement, a design created by his alcohol addled mind.

"I've always woken up from a blackout with bruises. Never love bites." Naruto smiled, small and honest. "Will I find myself limping?"

Sasuke's eyes shot up to look at big blue eyes. A tightness to his mouth and a clenching of his jaw. "No."

"Calm down, Sasuke. I remember what happened."

Sasuke's shoulders slumped in relief then he immediately shoved at Naruto who collapsed backwards against the side of the shower stall as he burst out laughing. "Asshole!"

"I had no idea you had such a branding kink," Naruto remarked as he lifted his shirt again looking at the marks.

Sasuke's cheeks seemed to redden slightly but he still smirked as he stood up, dusting his pants.

"What? Why are you looking so smug?" Naruto asked.

"You've been getting a call from that pink-haired roommate slash best friend slash PR of yours." Sasuke offered. "She wants to know when we started dating."

Naruto looked at his watch, it was barely ten past midnight. "As of 3:15 PM yesterday."

Sasuke looked down at the blond standing between his knees. A fond smile on his lips. "She has follow-up questions."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, how does she even know?"

Sasuke watched his face for a while before breaking into a vicious smile like a hunter having caught a prey. "Check your phone."

"What are you not telling me?"

"If you don't want to check your phone that's fine." Trying to hide a smile that Naruto caught in a reflection anyway, Sasuke opened a couple of cabinets, digging through it with a shrug, before handing a toothbrush over. "Brush, I'll make you some toast and coffee."

"Why are you not telling me?" Frowning deep, Naruto checked his pockets, found his phone in the left-side pocket. It was turned off. He turned it on, it took a moment for the phone to connect to the necessary networks and lines. Then the bathroom echoed with chiming and ringing of all kinds of social media making him yell, "What the ever-loving fuck?"

Naruto immediately switched his phone to silent while he groaned. "Fuck you, Uchiha, you absolute dick."

"That is not even my fault."

"What the hell." Naruto gaped at all the links and images he'd been sent. " _Uzumaki Comes Out With a Bang?_ What? I've never been in the closet. _We got news from an unnamed source that Itachi Uchiha's new production Rasengan will be releasing sometime this coming January. But that's not all!_ "

"Damn, that's some original article writing, yay for that shitty clickbait, just take me to the next part - _Uzumaki Naruto who will be starring this brand new show about intrigue and mystery is set to play Menma Kamikaze. The fresh face_ \- what do you mean fresh face? I've been in the industry since I was fifteen! - _the actor was seen getting very cosy with the creators of the show._ "

There was an image of Naruto and Itachi, both all wrapped up in scarves and beanies, the picture was considerably old, it was taken from last winter, around nine months ago, the first time he'd met Itachi, last winter. In the image, Itachi was smiling bright, making him look half a decade younger than he looked, meaning he looked the right age - thirty-two or so. Itachi was not a loud person so they were huddled close in a cafe that had the music on too loud, out of context they did look too close for acquaintances. Their cups of coffee looked photoshopped to appear like they were steaming.

" _Maybe a little too close?_ What the fuck are you trying to say, Konan? And what is this video?" Naruto asked as he played it.

 _There was a cackled laugh. "You two are drunk as skunks."_

" _Yes, but with good reasons!" Naruto declared from the video._

" _What are these reasons?" The unfamiliar voice asked._

" _I just heard that Rasengan is green-lit for season one!" Naruto kicked his legs and arms out in a celebratory whoop._

 _When the phone came up higher to take in the way Naruto seemed wrapped around Sasuke's back Sasuke protested. "Hey, that's not fair! Put that phone away."_

" _Smile Sasuke!" Naruto slurred in a delighted tone once Sasuke's face was pulled back, all the better for the blond to see. "Aw, look at that! You look like a Halloween pumpkin gone wrong."_

 _The sound of giggling from the film-taker. "This is gold."_

" _Good god, you're beautiful." Sasuke whispered as he peered up at Naruto._

Naruto gasped out loud. "Oh my god! That's kissing! We're kissing!" Naruto looked up, his cheeks felt sunburned at the look in the dark eyes that met him so he looked back down again. "Like making out like, like... Ohmygod, Sasuke!"

"You get rather frisky when you're drunk." Sasuke was leaning against the wall beside the sink with a sinful smile on his face as he watched Naruto closely. "Can't say I dislike it."

Naruto dropped the phone and buried his face in his hands. "Ohmygod."

"And that's only the part that Shisui caught."

"There's more?" Naruto was starting to feel and look more distressed. What if this ruined his career? What if Itachi hated this? What if Shisui wanted his spot on _Rasengan_? What if he didn't want the spot but got it anyway because Naruto had been a reckless idiot.

"Why, do you want there more?"

"I want to at least remember it!" Naruto pouted a bit.

"Fair point." Sasuke agreed, he took a hold of Naruto's hands and pulled him up. "So about that dinner you're taking me too."

But Naruto refused to meet his eyes, still marinating in his embarrassing video that was still playing. Shisui had turned on selfie mode and was standing in front of the boys making out with a peace sign, seeming excited.

" _Ah, young love!"_ Was the closing commented. Naruto squawked in indignation.

Sasuke sighed, clearly a bit bothered. "What's got you so flustered, you're an actor! You'll kiss a bunch of people on screen!"

Naruto shook his head, stepping up to the sink to brush his teeth so he had something to do with his hands. "That's acting Sasuke, using my mouth for professional purposes like doing a presentation or singing or eating for people who do those all you can eat competitions. This...this is my personal life. Memories of mine - that I barely remember the feeling off - and the whole world can see it, know it, somehow be involved in it, even just as spectators."

Sasuke sighed. "You're the leading role in a show that is going to run for six seasons - if not more - according to my brother's impeccable calculations." He stepped up behind Naruto, wrapping arms around him, trying to provide physical comfort while he spoke. "Your life will be heavily spectated at every step, from here on out. Whether it's you acting or not."

Naruto spat out some toothpaste and sighed. "I know. You're right. I'm not really complaining. Attention is the one thing I've always wanted. But… I still feel kind of violated. Like the only reason I matter is because I had coffee with Itachi a year ago, because I play Menma and because I kissed you."

Sasuke paused for a long moment watching the morning ritual. "What?" He looked at Naruto's tensed shoulders in front of him then the lines on Naruto's face, through the mirror. "You can't be serious," he muttered. There was the sound of him running a hand through his black bangs, pushing them back only for them to fall ahead again.

Naruto didn't meet his eyes as he rinsed his mouth out, he couldn't. He couldn't get himself to reply at all. A weight pulled at every limb. He felt an anvil settle on his chest and slowly but surely sink into him, pulling his lungs downwards, shoving them against his stomach taking away his breath in the worst way.

"What on earth are you on about? You're so… You are... It's absolutely impossible to hate you, or look at you objectively in anyway."

Naruto felt his jaw drop a bit in utter surprise, eyes snapping up to meet the frown reflected at him in the mirror.

"I have never met anyone who can make Itachi laugh like that - like he isn't five minutes from dropping with exhaustion! I haven't met anyone so absolutely infectious that you've seeped into every little synapse of my brain and fire at will. You make me - everyone, anyone - want to be around you every hour of every day. Your personality makes people gravitate to you like you're some sort of compact, portable, huggable sun."

Naruto struggled with the emotions Sasuke was forcing on him. What was he supposed to do when attacked by a wave of compliments like that?

"Naruto, I have never met anyone even remotely capable of turning a room full of tense prudes murmuring into their wine and bitching about each other into a party of people rooting for you to do well and by default, the show too."

Sasuke turned Naruto around, forcing him when the blond resisted. Naruto looked everywhere but at Sasuke.

But Sasuke waited and watched while Naruto struggled with his thoughts until he gave in, his shoulders dropping, eyes slowly wandering everywhere until the only place left to look was at Sasuke. Gaze hesitantly climbing up his chest, then into his eyes. "I think I - me, the man with standards higher than Mt. Everest - might be uncontrollably falling for you and you have the audacity to feel any kind of insecure."

Naruto stared at the man in front of him. "You can't be serious."

"I don't kiss just about anyone, Naruto. I had hoped to take my time with this but... Every time I think or speak or breathe or do anything at all I realise how helpless I am to you. I dread the day you realise your full capabilities as a persona because you could enslave a nation of the most hateful people simply by smiling." Sasuke's hand shook as he lifted it to tug slightly at a stray lock hanging at Naruto's forehead.

Naruto felt the dryness in his mouth. He opened his mouth and simply closed it again, at a loss.

"When I realised the strength of my feelings for you I felt helpless. Of course, someone as reckless and undeserving as me would find an angel to want."

"Sasuke-" Naruto's protest was silenced when Sasuke took him by the chin, his hold rather tight.

"An angel so pure, he walked out of hell and didn't let the sins of the place that dragged him down taint him in the least bit."

"You don't know that." Naruto shook his head and the grip tightened.

"Have you ever killed anyone, Naruto?"

Sasuke's question forced turmoil through his stomach. "I… it's… possible."

"Have you shot someone? Or strangled them with a shoelace? Knocked them out and sunk them in wet concrete?" he asked.

Naruto's eyes widened in horror. "I- No! Fuck. Have you?"

Sasuke ignored the question and barged on with his rather aggressive method of whatever he was doing. Attacking Naruto with some messed up version hero-worship. "You say you didn't make it out before me. But you made it out better than me, of that I am sure." Sasuke's voice was low. The conversation was whispered at that point. "In the face of everything I've ever seen and done, you're the purest person I've ever set my sight on."

"If you can call me a whole person," Naruto muttered, hands gripping at the sink. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "I'll never understand how you look at broken pieces and appreciate them in any way."

"Fine. Then you're the fragments and shards of the purest person I know. And if you'll let me I'll help you gather the pieces and assemble them."

And shards he was, Naruto agreed silently. Yet Sasuke looked at his twisted, mangled, pretzeled soul and found it in him to look like that. Dark eyes full of appreciation and want and worship. "Some pieces are lost-"

"Then I'll find them," Sasuke interjected, "Or give you mine."

"You're crazy!" Naruto's hands had found their way to grip at the shirt in front of him.

"For you, I am," Sasuke admitted with such seriousness Naruto felt on the verge of a cardiac arrest himself. "Me and everyone else you've ever met."

"Why-" He stopped when the words broke then tried again. "Why are you so nice to me?"

Sasuke's face twisted in what looked like a face ready to weep. "You deserve it if you ask me you deserve the world."

"No, I don't."

"You'll have it, anyway." Sasuke stepped closer, trying not to lose those blue eyes.

"Why are you saying these things?" Naruto shook his head, reeling in shock.

"One day you'll get there." Sasuke smiled, probably because Naruto didn't feel like running anymore. He felt like falling, throwing himself face first into whatever Sasuke was hinting at. "Can I call you my boyfriend?"

"You can say and do whatever you fucking want Sasuke." Naruto's voice was scratchy. "Whatever you damn well please."

"Will you do something for me?"

Naruto stilled, cautious. Was the other shoe about to drop? "What?"

"Give me... answers." Sasuke leant forward and Naruto took a sharp breath. But the dark-haired man simply pressed their foreheads together. "Tell me who you are. What do you like to do? Why? What makes your hours tick? And your blood rush? How can I be the one that makes your hours tock and your life go by with a smile?"

Naruto wrestled with his emotions again. His walls shaking and peeling and knocking against each other precariously. "The way you're speaking... I'd think you're asking for my heart."

"No, simply the map to it," Sasuke whispered the words against his lips before kissing them.

Naruto had no doubt that Sasuke would find his way there even if he tried it blind with arms tied behind his back.


	10. Brother Mine

{Naruto}

Taking his leave, booking a cab and getting to his flat was the easy part, getting from the front door to his room was the difficult part.

"Naruto! Kurama spent the whole day guarding the window. Someone broke in again, didn't they? Who was it?" Sakura blocked him in the entryway, demanding to know. "Why don't you ever tell me anything?!"

"Uchiha." Naruto threw out in an attempt to distract her as he tried to dance past her. Though, in fact, it has been Uchiha who broke in so technically he was giving her the answer she was asking for.

She was having none of it. "Ah yes, why pray tell are you getting drunk and making out with Uchiha Jr all over the internet?" she waved her arm to the TV that was playing some or other gossip story.

The headlines said, _Caught Lip Locked!_ Some blue haired lady was talking to the host.

"Can we not do this right now, Sax?" Naruto's nose scrunched up at the TV as he tried to push past her, heading towards the corridor that led deeper into the flat.

He needed a shower because at this point he felt he embodied a liquor store counter after a shoot up. He then needed to place a call... to Gaara. He'd gotten so drunk that he had missed his daily call to the redhead and he would pay for it.

Sakura blocked his path to the corridor, stubbornly playing defence. Her eyes narrowed. "Oh no you don't, this happens now! Do you know what a PR nightmare this would have been to clean up if Shisui was...anyone but Shisui? Kakashi isn't a magician. He can't pop a magic trick every time you screw up. You could start to look like a loose cannon that parties all the time!"

Naruto let Kurama fuss over him, sniffing and nipping at his hand. Naruto gave in and patted his head. "Maybe I am exactly that, Sakura."

"Okay, first of all, you aren't. And second, if you are, the world doesn't need to know. And third, you know all of that! Stop being a child! I know very well that you just want to annoy me so I get frustrated and stop. But that's not going to happen, I know you very well for that." She sighed when Naruto concentrated on Kurama.

Grabbing him by the elbow, she hauled him over to the couch, forcing him to sit. She remained standing, looking down at him like he was a naughty child. His shoulders slumped in resignation.

"Rasengan will put you on the map. You will get all kinds of scripts and auditions but it doesn't look great if you're caught making out with the producer's younger brother. This affair can put a question mark on your talents, Naruto!"

Sakura frowned and sighed heavily when Naruto didn't respond.

She knelt in front of him, folding her hands on his knees, resting her chin on them. Kurama licked at her cheek but she ignored him. "Look, I know that it's difficult for you. I get that. I really do. You didn't get the chance to live your teen years but our goal is to get your face all over the world and you can do it, it is very possible at this point and you'll ruin your chance if-"

"Sakura-chan, I really like Sasuke!" Naruto blurted, cutting his roommate off. Sakura was silent for a minute, caught between fuming silently or punching something violently.

"You've got to be kidding me. Are you high? Did he give you something? Are you defending him because you could get in trouble? You can be honest with me."

"I do not appreciate those accusations Sakura. Sasuke isn't like that." His protest weakened at the end because her hands had started tightly gripping his knees.

"What do you know what he's like? You don't know him better than me. I mean except his mouth. He's been arrested and tried for arson! Arson! Do you know what that means?" She was tearing at her hair by then. "He lights things on fire! For fun!"

"Well that explains why my body is burning then, doesn't it?" Naruto said with minimal inflection. He dully wondered if he should just tell her he point-blank that was going to be dating the Uchiha as she let out a high-pitched groan, still pulling at her hair while one her knees in front of him. "I think I could even love him," Naruto admitted aloud, softly.

"Naruto!" She exclaimed in desolation, her hands in her hair again, pulling at pink. "This is not the time to be distracted by hot boys! You are so very young! There will be time for that later."

"No Sakura, I'm saying could actually be happy with him."

"There is no happily ever after for anyone! Once a criminal always a criminal! His past will bite you in the ass!" She said, finally hoping to talk him out of it with reasoning.

"Then bring out the handcuffs and him and I will live unhappily ever after!" Naruto refused to be reasoned with. _Plus, our pasts are intertwined already._

Her jaw dropped. "Naruto. You could actually be the only exception and you could be throwing away your best chance!"

"And Kurama too!" Naruto added when the big guy barked.

"Naruto! This is bad!"

"What are you saying Sakura? You're the one who said there is no such thing as bad publicity." Naruto shrugged, untangling her hands from her hair and smoothing her fingers out on his knees, patting them in a somewhat soothing manner. "So I'll be the bad boy everyone loves. That's it. That's all it is in the end anyway...a persona."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't notice bad if it shoved a crow down your throat!"

Naruto huffed. "I heard your complaint. I'll think about everything you said. Can I go take a shower now?"

She sighed and stepped aside. "You torture me."

Naruto dropped a kiss on her forehead as he passed by her, opening the door to his room. "You tolerate me," he replied.

He stepped into the room and froze. Sitting in the middle of his bed with his legs folded under him Indian style sat Gaara. He was probably meditating.

"Gaara."

"You didn't call." his voice was soft, unconcerned but questioning. His eyes remained closed.

"I'll leave you to your domestic." Sakura couldn't help a grin and tease. Knowing if Naruto said he'd think of it, he would.

"We're not having a domestic." Naruto shot at her while he ushered her out of his room because she had meandered in at some point. Like the pain in his ass she was.

"Shouldn't have cheated on him with baby Uchiha." She added, popping her head back in after he'd closed the door on her.

"We're not a couple," Gaara added half-heartedly. The accusation didn't bother him as much. He could see the point she was making. "Although I agree, we'd make a decent couple."

"Gaara, you know I'll always love you. What I have for you is not something fleeting, it's beautiful, it's called a pseudo-romantic friendship. We draw the line at platonically drunk-making out a couple of times. Also, I am currently seeing someone, sorry." Naruto shrugged after delivering those lines, internally grinning at her shocked response.

"You what?" Sakura popped her head back in, her hands buried in and pulling at pink locks. "Uchiha?! Why can't Uchiha be your pseudo-romantic sometimes make out platonic thing on the side?!"

"Because that would never work. He's-" Naruto cleared his throat. _A forest fire_ is in bad taste after that not-so-little factoid about arson. "He's different."

Gaara looked at him for a long moment, aqua eyes opening for the first time and then he started laughing.

"What is going on?" Sakura asked because Naruto looked shook.

"I don't know. Maybe corny shit is right up Gaara's funny bone." Naruto observed the face curiously.

"Why wasn't that the first thing you told me?" Sakura demanded to know when she figured Gaara wasn't losing his mind. Which, in her defence, has been known to happen.

"I agree with Sakura. I was thinking way worse than you just getting laid!" Gaara dropped back onto the bed.

"You got laid?" Sakura tried to push her way back into the room as Naruto tried to keep her out. It was a rather embarrassing.

"I didn't get laid!" He told Gaara because Gaara often was very imaginative.

"Didn't you?" Gaara said thoughtfully. "How curious."

"For God's sake! Hey, Sakura, can you let us have our domestic?"

"So you accept that you two are going to have domestics?" Sakura pressed.

"Uh-oh." Sakura laughed when a couple of green frog slippers smacked at her as she ducked out of the room again.

"I'm okay with polyamory." Gaara offered.

"For fuck's sake!" Naruto tackled Gaara off the bed and Kurama wandered in, joining the puppy pile on the floor.

{Sasuke}

Sasuke watched the cab pull away. Naruto had said that he wouldn't be staying the night as Sakura basically moms when she's home he would be missed. Sasuke slowly headed back up the driveway, easing the door to the front entrance shut behind him.

Of course, he would be missed. A presence like his is unavoidably noticeable.

A light clicked on in the living room, dramatically highlighting not even half of Itachi in a dim orange glow. "Do come closer, brother mine."

"Itachi, I'm afraid to inform you that you are, in fact, a drama queen."

"Be that as it may. Since you include me in your nightly schedule of sneaking out, oūtoto, I think it's only fair I ask where you are going."

"Nowhere. See, I'm here. Home. Just went out for a breath of fresh air."

"More like a breath of fresh air came over."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Okay, you aren't going out tonight, but you did go out frequently. What have you been up to, then?"

"Research," Sasuke replied, a small smile playing on his lips.

Itachi looked at it for as long as it lingered. His hand then shot out and grabbed Sasuke's face so he could look at it properly. "Do that again."

"Do what? And get off me!" Sasuke tugged at Itachi's sleeve.

"Smile like that again," Itachi demanded.

"No!" Sasuke frowned instead.

"What were you thinking about?"

There were the beginnings of that smile again. One pair of impossibly dark eyes met another and the smile was clamped down on.

Itachi's smile puts a stop to Sasuke's attempts at prying on the hand still on his jaw.

"You better not be up to something bad, Sas. Especially arson. That was a difficult one to fight."

"A necessary evil, I assure you, Aniki. Now, let me go." Sasuke let go of Itachi's hand and simply waited. Ready to wait Itachi out.

Itachi returned the favour and let him go. "Tell me. What were you doing? "

"Stop Itachi!" He sounded a bit whiny then. Even a bit pouty at being prodded. "I was just... trying to...make friends."

"You get too intense about people. Who have you been stalking for the past couple of weeks, brother? Will I be seeing a restraining order soon? Or a jealous groupie of yours trying to harm my star."

"No."

"So it's Naruto, then. That video wasn't a stunt to lure someone else out. You actually like my star."

"Okay, you have to stop calling him that."

"But it's true."

"Just fucking stop, okay?!" Sasuke yelled and then they both tensed in surprise at his outburst.

"Good lord, you really fancy him a lot."

"Is it so hard to believe?"

"Not at all…" Itachi paused. "But…"

"Don't."

"Isn't he a bit young?"

Sasuke groaned.

"He just turned twenty. And you'll be twenty-six in a bit."

Sasuke looked like he would throw a fit. "If he's okay with it, then what is your problem?"

"He's okay with it? You've spoken to him about this, then?" Itachi leant forward, his smiling face completely in the shadow.

He doesn't want to share but he wants Itachi to know. "Yes, we have a date."

"Are you sure this is mutual?" Sasuke's glare made him backtrack a bit. "Okay, okay. I just I meant to say...You work fast."

Sasuke flushed at that.

"Congratulations."

"Shut up!" Sasuke fumed as he stomped away. The way Itachi spoke to and treated him always made him feel like he was ten again. Damn that man.

"I do believe I owe Kakashi," Itachi said thoughtfully.

Sasuke came back into the room. "You bet against me?"

"I won last time." Itachi shrugged. Sasuke glared at him. "Kakashi is just a romantic."

Itachi threw a stress ball around as he observed the footage on his laptop of the commercial they had shot. The commercial Naruto had altered right before Sasuke's eyes. It was so rare to see someone that could get on Itachi's level and get such a reaction from him.

"He's quite the hopeless romantic..." Itachi added while watching him make notes on a sheet. A sheet that had a lot of orange markings on it.

Sasuke took a minute watching the clip of Naruto's character storming into the police station claiming to not know who he is.

He smiled. "Let him have hope then."

Sasuke promptly left so as to avoid having his brother read something more in his posture. Or worse yet, ask questions.

Sasuke headed into his room, he flipped the light on and paused. On the bed sat a note.

He had not noticed it before. Had he left the room before Naruto? In retrospect, Naruto had definitely said something about having left his shoes.

 _Dear bastard,_

 _Tuesday, 7 pm._

 _I'll leave the window open._

 _N x_

The note just sat there. Physical proof that he'd get to hopefully spend undisturbed time with Naruto. Sasuke was quickly getting tired of wanting to be with someone without knowing who they've been for so long. Without knowing who they want to be.

His future to him had always been crystal clear, a path chosen for him, a tough journey, a fight, an uphill battle. A nightmare - but it had always been clear.

With Naruto parts of his life had turned into unquantifiable variables. He was uncertain where he was going because it now connected foundationally to where Naruto wanted to go.

His future was now riddled with magic eight-ball answers; _I don't know. Ask again. Is the sky blue? It is decidedly so. Don't count on it. My sources say._

Until he had Naruto's past mapped out, how can he help with Naruto's future?

As that is what he'd chosen to do. Be involved in this man's life however he could. Sasuke determined that their date would see him taking charge and asking all the right questions.

It was about time.


	11. Your Design

As was always the case whenever Naruto was concerned, things didn't go according to Sasuke's plans. That dinner date that was rightfully his to claim had been pushed back three times.

 _Three times._

Sasuke was constantly teetering on the edge of spontaneously kidnapping Naruto again.

Except this time he'd keep Naruto close, where he can keep an eye on the younger man. Or his hands, maybe even his mouth.

Sasuke would have made a big deal at being cancelled on but Naruto was working so hard that he didn't have the heart to complain.

Naruto had had a busy week. Even Sasuke could see that. He'd once caught the man in his car right after he's parked outside the studio, napping.

Sasuke had taken it upon himself to shove food down Naruto's throat because anyone even remotely attentive would see the young man got too caught up in his schedule and the people he met to even bother with food. But, despite being so very busy Naruto still attempt to have at least one meal together a day if they could.

Which was all sweet and all but the blond had promised him answers. Answers he wanted to waste no time getting. But it was as though everyone was planning against that.

Ino, Sakura and Itachi were keeping Naruto so occupied that it was impossible to have a private conversation. People flocked to him like bears to honey. It was ridiculous.

Naruto's attention should be on Sasuke. At least for one whole conversation. So when it struck five a.m. and the cast and crew dispersed to take a break, Sasuke stole him.

The team had worked through the night and dinner had been light for Naruto since he had some intensive physically exerting scenes. His arms and face were still oiled up from the scene. The sheen brought memories to the front of Sasuke's mind. He cleared his throat.

"Okay then, I'll talk." Naruto agreed, probably figuring out what Sasuke wanted. "From the beginning?" Naruto sighed. "Of course, from the beginning."

He sighed then began with his earliest memory. The first thing Naruto said he could remember was waking up in a junkyard. He guesstimates he was maybe twelve, had been beaten to a pulp and left to die in the trunk of a very old Cadillac. The only clue to who he was were the words stamped on his naval.

 _Fox Fire._

"Fox Fire?" Sasuke asked while carefully stealing a piece of chicken from Naruto's take-out box. The blond nodded while simultaneously plucking a shrimp from Sasuke's box. "What's that?"

"A club," Naruto replied. He had been climbing up elevator shafts, crawling through vents and pulling himself up on ledges and rooftops. The play of muscles on full display - thanks to the black tank-top. Every single movement spoke of powerful arms and hours of training, the thought made Sasuke shift in his seat.

"What's a twelve-year-old doing in a club?"

"That's exactly what I wondered."

Thanks to certain thoughts Sasuke was warming up despite the fact that they were huddled tightly together in the fire-escape of the warehouse Naruto was filming at. Even though it was a chilly morning, it had been plenty stuffy indoors.

There had been way more people on set than usual for a big, crowded police station scene. The chilly breeze was a welcome change from the claustrophobia of the indoors that was slowly creeping along Sasuke's skin.

"How did you end up unconscious in a junkyard?" He picked the most obvious question.

"I don't know. I don't remember. Sometimes I wonder whether I want to..." Naruto said with a strain of vulnerable tenderness. His words sounded like an echo from the scene he'd just witnessed being filmed only a few days after they met.

"Your character in Rasengan...Menma?"

"Yeah, Menma says that in a later episode." Naruto nodded with a surprised little smile at Sasuke recognising the dialogue. "Um, I added it," Naruto rubbed the back of his neck in mild embarrassment when Sasuke looked at him a little stunned. "It was just one thing."

"That scene changes everything! It gives your whole character a different angle." Sasuke shifts to look at him with appropriate awe.

"I know," Naruto agreed. "I wasn't trying to change everything, it was just a suggestion. Luckily Itachi liked it."

Sasuke watched Naruto's embarrassed cheeks slowly fill with some colour as the wind nipped at Naruto's cheeks. Luck had nothing to do with it. Itachi would have to be an idiot to not take the suggestion. And Itachi is no idiot.

Sasuke sighed. "Okay... so did you find out what _Fox Fire_ is?"

Naruto paused with the can of sweet lemon soda halfway up to his mouth. He settled for, "A club." Before taking a sip.

"What kind of club?"

"A sex club," he replied. Sasuke observed Naruto's face for a few minutes, he realised the blond wasn't joking. He wasn't even breathing, all his attention was on the conversation even as he stared at the logo on the bag of the Chinese place Sasuke had ordered from.

Sasuke set his own take out box down and scratched at the label on his non-carbonated lemonade. "You're serious."

"I wasn't working for them." Naruto began a bit defensively, his words rushing out as if scared to be misunderstood. He paused then bristled in annoyance. "Okay, I was, but not like... I wasn't a sex worker."

Sasuke's stiff shoulders suddenly slackened. "Okay... Then?"

"I was a delivery boy." Naruto shrugged and attacked the dumplings sitting in the container between them. His motions a bit too casual. Sasuke noted the forced nonchalance and frowned, realising he hadn't seen a flash of blue eyes for a long while, and it wasn't all because he'd been checking out the fine blond man in front of him.

"What kind of delivery boy?" While not generally a curious person who wanted to know every little aspect of someone's life, Naruto brought out a unique unquenchable curiosity in Sasuke. He wanted to know everything.

Naruto's shoulders were a bit tense, he was studiously picking at the little rice left at the bottom of his own box.

"Oh, you know..." When he looked up he wore a smile a mile wide, his eyes closed as if to show off an extreme gleeful type of happiness. It was a trainwreck that made Sasuke wince.

Sasuke had been on the receiving end of a lot of fake smiles in his life. After having been blessed to witness the somewhat holy event of a real genuineAsmile from Naruto, he never thought that he'd see this hideous grimace turned to him.

"No, I don't, enlighten me," Sasuke said in a somewhat unimpressed voice. Hoping to make clear that he wasn't being fooled by that gargoyle grin.

Naruto looked at him, his cheeks washing white a bit. "I don't, I mean... I don't think you want to hear this one, Sasuke."

"I asked, didn't I?" Sasuke insisted. Still slowly picking at his meal. In contrast to Naruto, he'd only finished half his meal and was running full.

"Doesn't mean you'll like it," Naruto muttered.

Sasuke wondered for a moment at what the blond wasn't telling him then shrugged it off. "I'll be the judge of that. And we won't know if you don't tell me." His arguments brooked no counter.

Naruto sighed in defeat. "I delivered drugs." The words expanded in the air, making his breath became more difficult to take in.

"Sasori. Sasori? Sasori took you?" Naruto nodded and Sasuke looked he'd been harassed. "I saw him a thousand times when I was working with... I never even knew. He had you this whole time, he knew where you were all along... and I had no idea!"

Naruto's face was rather surprised as Sasuke voiced his thoughts, he had no inkling what to expect, but this wasn't it. "Thinking about you for so long and I could have seen you if only I'd voiced some sort of question about you in his vicinity!"

Now Naruto was blushing, silenced in the face of the lack of Sasuke's embarrassment at having admitting something like he'd just done.

"What? You thought I'd change my mind at finding out you were a drug mule?" Sasuke scoffed. "Don't be a moron. If anything I should be worried about your reaction to my past."

"What did you do?"

"I..." Sasuke then froze. His face, his lungs, his wish to breathe at all.

"It's okay if you're not ready," Naruto said, letting his hand fall on Sasuke's at his knee. Intertwining their fingers with their palm both face down. Sasuke took a shaky breath, looking at Naruto with sudden deep gratitude. "Take your time."

Sas squeezed his hand. "You were saying."

"People might have died because they overdosed on drugs I brought to their local," Naruto added.

"You were doing what you had to." Sasuke let his hand pat comfortingly on Naruto's knee. "Don't let anyone guilt you into thinking otherwise. I know what it's like to have to work with someone just to stay alive, Naruto."

Naruto was silent for entirely too long. The stretching silence felt like plastic cling wrap winding around his skin, trapping him in the moment.

Then, the figurative ripping of the cling wrap came in the form of a couple of tears. One going down each side of Naruto's face, in a silently suffering rendition of a race. The tear sliding down his left cheek was ahead.

Sasuke's eyes widened, alarmed at the reaction. "Hey, this isn't news to you, is it?" He asked, feeling panicked even as he tried to pat the blond on the back to comfort him. Sasuke was at a loss.

Naruto recovered from his loss first, wrapping his arms around Sasuke, squishing the dumplings between them. His kind of empty container and chopsticks forgotten yet still clutched in his hand. "I... I'm just..." but clearly he hadn't recovered from the loss of words.

Sasuke felt the blond sag a bit and realised what the blond was failing to say. Sasuke could read it from the sudden release of tension from the body he'd been very much studying and in tune with all day. "Relieved. You're relieved."

Naruto nodded, blond hair tickling Sasuke's ear.

"Okay, first of all, are you an absolute moron? You have any idea what I've done my whole life?"

"I mean, yeah... I kinda figured... Since you said that I was the reason you were able to get out... So that must mean you were in for a while. Like, to some extent at least. And must have like seen some shit."

Sasuke watched in fascination when Naruto's reaction was rather unruffled about Sasuke's possible criminal tie-ups. His casual tone made him sound more innocent than he was. As if having read his expression the boy let out a nervous laugh as he pulled away from the hug but not completely leaving Sasuke's space bubble.

"Well with the way you said it...made it sound, made it sound like you wanted out and like you weren't happy there. I figured that you probably wouldn't be still involved... if you could help it... in that case." his volume steadily tapered to the end. Clearly unsure.

"Damn right I'm out," Sasuke replied simply. Holding Naruto's gaze, making sure the younger man could see that truth in his own eyes.

"Oh." Naruto swallowed. "I'm... I'm..."

Sasuke's face blanked. "You're still in."

"Not exactly. I just... Well...It's complicated."

"He let you out nicely and he keeps tabs on you because you're useful so he keeps coming back like some relapse and fucks up the life you're trying to build anew but whenever he does but you can't say no."

Naruto's eyes grew wider slowly and he gaped at Sasuke. "How the fuck?"

"I believe we technically grew up in two different branches of the same criminal organisation. The reason they haven't been caught yet is because they know how to handle their people. Keep them in or keep them six feet under."

Sasuke turned, standing up and pulling up the left side of his shirt. There was in kanjis tattooed with black ink, in fancy calligraphy were the words Chi No Yoake. They were arranged in a pyramid; Chi at the top and No Yoake forming a base. There was, inked on his pale skin, a texture of fire emanating from the words.

血 の 夜明け

Naruto stood up. Pulled at his hair in a moment of tribulation. Then he angled himself and pushed down the right side of his pants just enough to expose the artwork stamped onto the skin just a little south-west from the hip bone.

Inked in red, spreading to the butt cheek - but not too much - were different words in the same script and design. Spiralling out from a centre were the words, Muketsu No Kakumei.

無血 革命

A similar fire texture surrounded the words, but the artwork was thinner, probably due to a difference of artist's hand.

They both looked at each other until Sasuke shivered a bit, Naruto pulled his pant back up and Sasuke blushed slightly.

They both were quiet for a second, taking in the new revelation as they both pulled their jackets tighter around themselves before Naruto voiced his thought.

"For the record, I have no idea what those words are," Naruto admitted.

"Mine says, _Dawn of Blood_." Sasuke brings his left hand up and bites at his sleeve self-consciously. His eyes a bit distant. Then his eyes focus on Naruto.

Naruto simply looks confused then he sighed and offered. "I have no idea what mine says either."

Sasuke's eyes widen at the implication. A boy bound in fealty to an organisation without proper ceremony meant only that he'd not been inducted properly.

"Yours... yours says Bloodless Revolution."

"What does that mean?"

"How do you not know what yours says?"

"I kind of escaped right after this was put on me... The only way to get me an opportunity to be...rescued from Kakuzu's faction was for me to accept Nagato's terms and do the ceremony... I... Technically, I still haven't given my oath... They're... they're still looking for me Sasuke."

Sasuke's eyes widened. There was silence then an explosion from him. "Then why the fuck are you putting your face on billboards?"

"I...I'm tired of running and hiding." Naruto looked down into his hands. "I'm also... I'm hoping... to find someone. More like, hoping that putting my face out there like that will make sure that someone finds me."

"Who?" Sasuke's shoulders looked tensed, his gaze fixed on Naruto. Naruto touched his cheek, just because he could, Sasuke's cheeks were chill, he looked a bit pale too.

Naruto smiled and the smile warmed Sasuke before the words sliced to the warmth with an icicle. "My parents."

A/N: Feed me with comments to fuel the writing!


	12. Where You From?

12\. Where You From?

"Your parents? Are they missing?" Sasuke's back had straightened, the care and concern so evident in his sharp attentive look made Naruto feel almost guilty for stealing this man for himself.

Naruto's words spilled forth slowly, he thought long and hard about every word he was putting out. "Well… Technically... I'm the one... who went missing. But yeah… I guess I can say... that they are... missing." Naruto's voice had then went soft; that or the wind had picked up enough to layer over his words, whipping around them as they huddled closer together instinctively. "It took me forever to find where I used to live and when I got there - nada. They were gone. No trace, no forwarding address. Nothing."

Sasuke took Naruto's hand in his and squeezed. Staying silent because somehow he knew Naruto wasn't done talking.

"I just… I can't help but think that… That they won't want to see me." Naruto's voice was a cracking, crumbling wall of very old plaster in the face of a wrecking ball. "My biggest fear is that I'll find them and have to face what they think of what I've become."

"Naruto," Sasuke offered in a soft voice. "You're an absolute moron."

Naruto flinched.

"Why do you assume the worst?" Sasuke asked as he took one of the tan, warm hands between both of his.

Naruto fought the pull of absolute desolation in the pit of his stomach. Wrestling it under control. The fight was tough, his thoughts had the jaw and grip of a reptile as it crunched down on his lungs. But Sasuke's hand was there and his breathing, the small puffs of warm breath in his direction reminded him the inhale the biting air and exhale his own warm breath.

"Yeah, you're right." he mumbled after a long, silent struggle, and if he sounded a little winded then he ignored it. "I'm just an idiot." His free hand was gripping the metal stair under him tight.

Sasuke's face tightened in a frown at the unexpected reply and direction. "How so?" he asked, as if to dip his toes in to prepare himself for the temperature of a water body.

"The chances of me finding them are minimal anyway. There is... Um, there's no sign as to where they went. They could be anywhere or even dead or... I don't know… Locked up somewhere. And here I am worrying about what they'll think… I need to focus my energy on finding them, not speculating on the trivial."

"It's not trivial, Naruto, your feelings and doubts are completely valid."

Naruto stared ahead, he felt his face crack in half, one part trying to resist the urge to crumple and failing, the other part frozen in a determined stasis.

"No, not valid, I mean natural! What- what I meant was that it is natural." Sasuke said swiftly, an edge of panic in his voice. He reached out for Naruto's other hand, forcing him to let go of the metal. He took the hand between his with purpose. Letting the other tan hand sit on his lap.

Gently, Sasuke opened the fist, rubbing the palm to sooth the chilled sting, making sure their hands were warm and Naruto's shoulders had relaxed slightly before continuing.

"It's natural for you to worry, you had no one or nothing to reassure you. But I'm here now. And I'm probably a hundred percent biased when I say this, but still, your parents definitely want their son back, Naruto. And I'm sure they'll be proud of you no matter what."

Naruto's blue eyes stared at their hands. "I hate it when you say impossible stuff like that."

"You hate it because you're used to being too hard on yourself." Sasuke scolded him with sudden fervor. "You are an idiot who can't look in a mirror and extend to yourself the same care and understanding that you extend to strangers!"

Naruto frowned. "How would you know, Sasuke?"

"I know what I'm seeing. I know that you're aware of what I've done, more so than anyone else. But you don't hold it against me, you see me for who I am and not what I've done. You forgave me overnight, Naruto." Sasuke's frown melted into a thankful smiled. "Like an idiot."

Naruto huffed, bristling reluctantly at the border where annoyed meets flattered. "Will you stop calling me that?"

"No. Where was I? Right. You who can forgive me so simply for all the things I did to you. Because we both know I am the person responsible for separating you from your parents and wrecking your life. And you forgave me and made it look like nothing."

"Well, like you said before, you didn't go out of your way to do it... it was a... mistake. And you had no control over the situation anyway. If we want to point fingers, the person who told you to do it is responsible." Naruto shook his head. "But being mad at you or them won't help me find my parents. Won't help me in any way, shape or form. It'll only take precious time and energy."

"Well, being unfair to yourself won't help either." At Naruto's lack of reply Sasuke decided for a different tactic. "Hmm, you know how I got out?"

Naruto shook his head.

"I killed my boss." Sasuke admitted and Naruto shuddered immediately. He had heard that apathetic tone before. Sasuke was apparently distancing himself from the memory of the moment. His body language had changed, as if he were bracing for something.

"Did someone tell you to do it?" Naruto huddled into Sasuke's side, gripping the hand in his tight, assuming this was difficult for him.

"No. It was my choice." Sasuke's smile was strained. When Naruto shifted uncomfortably Sasuke started speaking again. "Do you-"

"Don't. Don't even ask me that." Naruto huffed, his breath misting in the air and tickling Sasuke's ear. "You just said it yourself, I don't see you for what you've done but who you are. And who you are is…loving. Caring. Observant. Obtrusive. Larger than life."

Sasuke coughed into his hand. "That's enough. What are you doing?"

"Ah, I see, not so smooth when you're on the receiving end." Naruto remarked and Sasuke flushed redder. "Well, even I have done distasteful things I regret-"

"I feel many things about it, Naru, but regret is not one of them. I feel like I did the world a favour. And I'd do it again if I had to. I mean, it's not like it was something wanted to do, more like something I had to. It was him or me in the end and… well, I had people to protect." Sasuke's gaze was lost in a middle distance.

That made it much easier for Naruto to look him in the face, observing every crevice and shadow made prominent by the stark white, outdoor tube light.

"And to add to that, I was hoping to live and find a particular blond boy that likes to argue about the fine details and laughs about everything and nothing with absolute strangers."

Naruto was jarred out of his fretting concern with a blush. "Bastard! We're having a serious conversation!" Naruto's put on fake outrage made Sasuke chuckle.

"I want to ask you to never laugh in front of someone else. They might fall over themselves trying to throw themselves at you." Sasuke said, looking at Naruto from the corner of his eye, clearly aware how carefully Naruto was observing him.

When Naruto realised he looked away immediately, pouting because that option wasn't nearly as embarrassing as as replying in kind.

"Come on, Naruto, give me some lip curvature. The whole serious face is more my thing anyway." Naruto didn't respond at first, he couldn't muster anything to put into a smile. But he tried, he reached into the surly pit of his psyche and broke out into a grin so heinous that Sasuke quickly putting a hand on Naruto's face.

When the smile didn't stop he pulled at an end of the blond inciting an explosive, "Ow!"

"Don't show me that fake grin. Never show me that fake grin. I hate it."

"You're so mean!" Naruto whined suddenly. The pull on his ear had hurt him in his sensitive moment more than he'd willingly admit. "Stop that."

Sasuke let his hand drop from the ear onto the tanned cheek, after pushing a few blond locks behind the reddened ear. "How are you not running away screaming right now? I told you I killed a man."

Naruto pressed the cheek into the palm, a small smile worming its way onto his face. "I actually think it's too late for me to run. You've imprinted on me or something. And you might just be unstable enough to lose your mind if I leave you."

"I'll admit I could die if you left."

"I can't have that on my conscience, it's heavy enough as is." Naruto laughed, snuggling into the palm that Sasuke let drift all over Naruto's face. "Plus, maybe I just have a death-wish."

"Your faith in me is astounding."

"What's there to have faith in? All your ravings of a mad-man?"

The dark-haired man looked askance at the blond man. "Why do you find it so difficult to accept what I think of you?"

"Because you're imagining like ninety per cent of it." Naruto declared through his peaceful expression.

Sasuke took a cheek between his fingers, pinching it pink and making Naruto squirm away with a noise of protest. "Hey, I just calls 'em like I sees 'em."

"You calls 'em like you hallucinate 'em." Naruto reasoned aloud. "Your mind can't comprehend the empty room that is my qualities to love so you're filling it with imaginary things."

"Naruto. I won't force you to think the way I do about you, but please don't disregard my opinion like that." Sasuke said in a perfectly no-nonsense tone, with only a bit of his annoyance leaking out. His voice wasn't even half as harsh as the cheek-pulling he'd started on Naruto's other cheek.

"Sasuke." Naruto tugged at Sasuke's hand.

"Naruto." Sasuke replied but let go of the cheek

"You don't know anything." Naruto shifted away, rubbing his cheeks.

Sasuke sat quietly for a moment. "Then tell me, what I don't know."

Naruto's stomach twisted with an obscure affection for Sasuke. He always had a reply. He didn't let Naruto shut him out which was a talent in and of itself.

"What are your parents like?" he asked abruptly. Suddenly thirsty for a glimpse into the backdrop that made Sasuke the striking highlight he was.

"Don't change the topic. You still have a lot more to tell me." Sasuke protested.

"Please." Naruto said softly. He could feel the choking in his throat and he hoped to whatever entity that it wasn't showing. Not that it made a difference. Sasuke had front row seats to trainwreck that was The Naruto Show lately. "Humour me, Sas. I just need to think about something else for a bit."

Sasuke sighed then acquiesced. "My parents are your average Asian couple. They like discipline and achievements. They dislike disobedience and independance."

Blond eyebrows rose high. "Independence? What's to hate about independance?"

Sasuke laughed. "Well Naruto, the more independent Itachi and I are, the less control they have over us."

"Control?" Naruto was baffled. What kind of description is that?

Sasuke reached out and tapped Naruto's nose fondly which was scrunched up in confusion. "And if they can't control us, how can they face the rest of the clan - uh - family?"

"A clan, huh? Good grief, I can just imagine it. A town square of dark haired people with a sense of entitlement dripping from every pore." Naruto chuckled at Sasuke's answering glare. "Do they all look impeccable, with flawless cream-like skin, intense dark abysses for eyes and lips personally gifted by God?"

Sasuke's ears, cheeks and nose flared pink. He cleared his throat a few times before biting his lower lip as he couldn't control his smile. "Shut up."

Naruto's laugh was loud and warm, it reached out to Sasuke, warming him from within.

"Your laugh." Sasuke reached out and traced Naruto's lips still open from the laughing with his fingers. "It feels like whiskey."

Naruto snorted then laughed even harder, slightly choking on the cold air as it dried out his throat, bringing tears to his eyes. "You're insane, Sas."

"Hmm, I've heard that love is a permanent madness."

"For fuck's sake!" Naruto squirmed and looked away. "So who are you closer to, your mom or your dad?"

"Neither." Naruto's stricken look made Sasuke sigh. "I used to be very close to my mom but..."

"But?"

"But she's a faithful wife." And that's all he said on that.

"What was it like when you got back?"

"Hmm, when I finally came home to them, they greeted me with a lot more care and attention than I'd ever gotten in my life…" Sasuke leaned forward his elbows resting on his knees, his hands steepled below his chin. "I thought it was natural since I was gone for ten years but as time passed I realised they were focusing a lot more time and energy on me than I had ever received. They also began to - or already had been - completely neglecting Itachi who was, surprisingly, not even living with them anymore." Sasuke took a breath. "It took me a while to get there but eventually I did the math. I'd replaced Itachi as the prized offspring."

Naruto shook his head, his heart bleeding for Itachi who had proved to Naruto he wasn't as hardass as he put on. The man was the physical manifestation of a touch-me-not plant. That must have hit him so hard.

"They hated Itachi's decision to reject business school, med school and law school scholarships to pursue film production and directing."

"No." Naruto's eyes widened, his grip tightening, his voice a hollow appeal.

"They'd decided that they would instead focus on me. Which was complete bullshit, in my opinion. I had spent most of my childhood hoping my father would even look at me. I had gotten used to being a shadow. Now, suddenly, my father was behaving as if Itachi wasn't even his son anymore."

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph Conrad." Naruto muttered. He felt guilty for hating Sasuke's father, but he couldn't not.

"Because how can you boast about your son if he's a struggling artist, yeah? Every meal we had together, Itachi who was basically treated like a fucking visitor. At that point I didn't care for my parents attention."

"But Itachi did."

Sasuke looked at Naruto then nodded. "Yeah. I had died everyday waiting for even a hint of recognition. And now that I have it, it's dirty and wrong and kind of over my brother's dead body."

"I'm so sorry."

"He's not really dead." Sasuke replied.

"I'm am aware, he is my boss." Naruto's comment made Sasuke's lips quirk and Naruto felt relieved, because clearly, family is very important to Sasuke. Looking at his furrowed brows Naruto noted, or at least...Itachi is. "So, what did you do?"

Sasuke sighed. "I left. To live with Itachi."

"How did he feel about it?"

"Itachi was… happy about it. I don't let him tell me otherwise. He keeps telling me he's okay but... I know he isn't. And- and I don't want to have anything to do with people who rate Itachi according to their graphs and charts. Anyone who thinks, 'oh. let's love the murderer son instead of the creative one' can- can kiss my ass. It's their ideals and wants for us, against our wants for ourselves." Sasuke made a face. "I'm getting more worked up about this than I can handle right now"

"Okay…" Naruto hesitated then went for the question. "Why do you say that you did the world a favour by...?"

"The sick fuck experimented on children." Was the straightforward reply.

"Oh." Naruto shifted in his seat and looked at his nails.

Sasuke watched him for a second and made an observation. "You know who I'm talking about."

"Uh, yeah." Naruto nodded. "He was very… he was too friendly. Until he wasn't friendly anymore and he was filling kids with acid." Naruto said in a vacant voice. His mind was playing a particular Disney song the man liked to play. His ears were buzzing with it. He clamped down on the memory so hard he felt the urge to vomit.

"He drugged you?" Sasuke's voice was rough and aggressive with restrained rage. Naruto jumped at the tone, looking spooked enough that Sasuke took a few breaths to calm down.

Naruto hummed in acknowledgement but he couldn't find a want to reply.

"What did he do to you?" Sasuke asked finally. Naruto looked like he didn't want to answer. "Naruto, tell me."

"I met him once. I just wanted to save Sakura. He… carved lines into my skin."

Sasuke took a deep breath then dared, "What lines?"

Naruto picked up a clean tissue from the brown paper take out bag and wiped at his cheeks until they were raw and red but not covered in whatever skin coloured cosmetics he'd used. Three thin scarred lines sat on each cheek, they looked like whiskers, spreading outwards from the centre of his face.

"He said he wanted to figure out why I was always running hot like a nice little fever. So he tried to find out."

Sasuke's fists were clenched and shaking. His rage was a rush of lava from the ground in contrast to Naruto's sudden stillness and inactivity. "I wish he was still alive just so I could kill him again."

"Won't fix anything." Naruto spoke, mild as milk. "Revenge is that treasure chest deep in an underwater tunnel, you sacrifice everything to reach and come out the other end with a chest filled with dust, and regret."

"It would make me feel less angry." Sasuke said half heartedly.

"No, it wouldn't." Naruto argued. "It'd only make you feel hollow because then you'd stop having someone to blame and hate all the time. You'd become a hacked out pinata version of yourself and call me selfish but I like you how you are now."

Naruto ran a hand through dark hair, having the bangs that were longer than the rest of his hair pulled back for a few seconds before they fell to frame delicate ivory features. "I'm kind of slightly addicted to you and the way you rain baseless compliments down on me. The way you touch and kiss me. It makes me feel less like a ghost."

"You're not a ghost, you're a living breathing human." Sasuke notified him simply.

"You're the one and only person that makes that sentence feel true."

Sasuke peered at Naruto carefully, disbelievingly. "Say that again."

"You're the only one who makes me feel alive." Sasuke was on Naruto before the sentence was over.

A couple of chopsticks rolled and tumbled down the stairs, bottles toppled over and a bunch of tissues took flight, wisps of white in the early morning.

Lips were pressing against lips with such a hurry that their teeth bumped due to too much contact and their lips moved in a stilted rhythm at moments of too less contact.

"And you're the only one I think I am alive for." Sasuke replied.

"You say the most embarrassing things with a straight face!" Naruto yelled for some reason.

"It's because I mean them." Sasuke said with a role of his eyes.

"Fuck you, bastard."

Sasuke laughed at the new nickname. "Don't tempt me, idiot."


	13. When The Night Changes

**13\. When The Night Changes**

 _A/N: I think I need to put some kind of warning? Maybe? I don't know, guys. This is not what I had planned! But it works and I'm happy with it. So, eh. Things might be less intense from 15… but I don't actually know that, I promise nothing._

{Sasuke}

Sasuke had always been a nice kid, did his homework. Only stole a cookie if he was absolutely peckish and never before a meal, only after. He never picked on anyone. Always did his homework. He was on top of his bed-making game. And, above all else loved, very deeply, his once perfectly functional family.

However, shortly after he'd been taken, he'd tasted a life of freedom, a life with no rule. A life where he did whatever the hell he wanted,whenever he wanted, with whomever he wanted. The little taste and his general hormonal teenage angsting had turned him into a power-crazy maniac.

Being smarter and stronger and mean was a rush. Having people look at him with a mix of want and fear was a rush. Being Orochimaru's prodigy and receiving his approval had been the biggest rush of all.

Until he saw the child Orochimaru wanted him to assist with cutting to pieces.

Suddenly, the floor was out from under him. The doors he'd willingly walked through had been bolted from the outside. He found himself in a deep, deep snake pit he never knew he'd non-verbally asked to be thrown in simply because he'd proven he could survive in it. Thrive, even.

So there he was, in the face of the pale-skinned and red-haired child-sized ghost. He saw that while his choice had saved him from being the child in the bed, it had also put another child in his vacated spot.

It also placed him in the spot of the man with the scalpel and the blood-thirsty smile so unnatural it couldn't possibly be his own lips on his face. Looking at the shoes he'd stepped into had made him actually throw up in his mouth a little.

The very real fact that Orochimaru had at some point sold him on this horrific idea of being his apprentice... The very thought that Orochimaru had thought Sasuke was so far out into that darkness that he'd be ready to take a scalpel to a child's sternum simply for explorative pleasure was disgusting to him.

He couldn't help the twist of his face, the clenching of the scalpel and the violent stab to the throat he aimed at Orochimaru.

He'd completely disengaged his mind as it had been overcome by blind magmatic rage, each stab was a satisfaction he'd never experienced. Every twist of the tiny blade that disfigured the man's face was a heady victory to the countless little ones who couldn't or wouldn't or were never given the millisecond of a? chance to get the jump on this sorry excuse of a man,

All it had taken to receive this prized opportunity was to have completely fooled his _proud predecessor_ so much so that the monster had basically handed him the scalpel and bared his own chest, asking to be carved open. And what a performance he'd put on, shame Orochimaru wasn't able to see the final product. What a fitting end it was, despicably disfigured. Finally the outside matched the inside.

When a weak, pale hand stopped him, he looked up into deep sunken eyes and lips so pale they looked bleached of life and blood and hope. The face made for a terrifying present and an even more haunting memory as it twisted and folded upon itself in his mind with time, adding layer upon layer to what he'd almost become.

No, not what he'd almost become, what Orochimaru, thankfully, had severely failed in turning him into - he was neither the victim nor the perpetrator. Even so, he'd become something else in the end. He was still a murderer.

His hands were bloodied with the death of something so distasteful, instead of finding a way to bury the body he simply vacaated the suburban home-turned-laboratory and torched it. Watching the very fabric the stained memories were on go up in flames.

The dream that morning started the same way it usually did.

 _Unsure of how he got there, Sasuke hoisted himself off the gurney he was laying on. Looking around he felt ball and chain weigh at his heart; How was he back here again? Back in the land where nightmare was reality. Back to where he'd given up on faith and love and justice and happiness._

 _Back when his only driving force had been a wish to maybe see a head of gold, glimpse it before he was done for. Back when the only light in the never ending tunnel - of sickly and defective children pawned off to a man with way too much time, money and vile hobbies - was a single distant candle he'd once seen in a dream of a dream._

 _He was stuck here though, and the dreamscape had play out in its entirety so he complied. He got his feet under him and walked down the curtained rows of beds, some absolutely silent, some producing the dysphoric content of chattering children minding their own business as their timers ticked down to the moment of their slaughter._

 _Sasuke walked without looking, looked without seeing, saw without absorbing and absorbed without knowing. Trying to keep at bay the onslaught of remembered distress, he kept his face neutral to the infliction of calmly and clinically realised savagery just like he used to. His smile used to be a sickly insane smirk of a zombie because he could never muster real joy in this building._

 _He walked to the room like it was his own bedroom. In a different world, where he'd made a different choice, it would have been. It would have been the room he went to for his final nap._

 _There he expected the pale haunting redhead was awaiting him. The one who never said a word, simply held onto Sasuke's left wrist while his hysteria played out from fury to fright and then forlorn. The kid didn't hug or comfort him in anyway, instead he tightly held Sasuke's wrist until the scalpel slipped out, then the tears._

 _But instead, laid out on the gurney and hooked up to a hundred and one machines was a grinning child of five, with tanned skin and hair looking honeyed in the dull lighting._

 _Until the eyes opened, not the beautiful blue with human-typical hope and wonder but an awful red of a demonic desire for death and destruction. Soft tanned skin around the eyes cracked like sand from the Sahara, as three incisions on each cheek formed slow, right in front if his eyes and bled. The newly formed lines of whiskers matched so perfectly maddened fox-like grin on the mischievous child's face._

 _A tanned hand reached out to grip his left wrist. But instead of making him drop the bloody scalpel the boy pulled the hand close and made it carve a deep line down the sternum with an agonisingly slowly move._

 _Every inch of the skin severing felt like it managed to last a millennia._

 _A century trapped in a single cut._

Sasuke awoke screaming and sweating. His throat dry, his voice moist and thick with unshed anguish.

Itachi was in his room in an instant, like a ninja. He was dabbing his face with a cool towel he'd pulled out of thin air, like a magician. And he was consoling him and shushing him, like a brother.

"What happened?" he asked as he handed Sasuke a glass of water. from the jug placed on the bedside table.

"Naruto told me had an encounter with Orochimaru." Sasuke said after he'd downed half the glass. He'd made a pact with Itachi to be completely honest with him about the past. So he kept it. Even as his voice gave up.

"And he skimped on the details, so your imagination went wild." Itachi provided, performing some weird form of genius emotional mental-math.

"My imagination, I think, needs to be exorcised."

Itachi sighed and patted Sasuke's head, a small quirk on his lips. Sasuke grabbed onto him, pressing his ear to Itachi's chest. Ignoring Itachi's chuckle he counted every beat from Itachi's heart until his own had calmed down.

They were jostled out of the moment by a ringing.

"What's that noise?" Sasuke asked with a deep furrow between his brows. Every word of his wrapped in incredulity.

Itachi looked at him so bemused. "I believe that's your phone, Sasuke."

"I gathered that, but, who'd be calling _me_? Probably some promotional call."

"Perhaps if you look at the caller ID...?" Itachi suggested in a dry manner.

"Yeah, sure, Itachi, the thought never occurred to me."

Just then the phone stopped ringing and Itachi spoke up, "Well, you've missed your chance now."

"Hm, if I'm not mistaken there is this strange invention made not so long ago, they call it a call back option." Sasuke prattled slowly, in a tone as if to imply Itachi had recently hit his head on a wall.

"Stupid brat." Itachi - as he so often used to when they were little and having an argument - resorted to attempting to squash Sasuke's head against his chest. As if smothering him with a brotherly embrace would be an appropriate way to end him.

"Get off me, I can't breath!" Sasuke pushed in quiet desperation at the arm and the chest hoping to free his nose of the soft, big, grey t-shirt Itachi had been sleeping in.

With his other hand Itachi snatched Sasuke's phone up just as it began buzzing again with a soft melody.

 _You look so beautiful today_

 _When you're sitting there it's hard for me to look away_

 _So I try to find the words that i could say_

 _I know distance doesn't matter but you feel so far away_

 _And I can't lie_

 _Every time I leave my heart turns gray_

 _And I wanna come back home to see your face tonight_

 _Cause I just can't take it_

 _Another day without you with me_

 _Is like a blade that cuts right through me_

 _But I can wait_

 _I can wait forever_

"Oh I see, you pretended to not recognise the caller tune because you'd hate for me to hear this conversation." Itachi smiled with glee at Sasuke's renewed struggling.

Itachi grappled with him expertly, taking one of Sasuke's hands and maneuvering it in such a way it wrapped around Sasuke's neck in a restrictive chokehold. "Now, I'm going to pick up the call and you will speak like all is fine unless you want to accidently pass out during the call."

"You're fucking heartless, Aniki!" Sasuke kicked his legs that were to his surprise uselessly trapped under them with the blankets. _When did he do that?_

Itachi snickered. "If I'm heartless, yours was cast in freezing fire, outoto. Now allow me to melt that with warm rain." With that Itachi accepted the call.

"Hello?" Naruto's soft and rough voice called out over the speaker.

When Sasuke didn't reply, Itachi squeezed at his neck a little, only enough to apply some incentive. "Naruto!" Sasuke gasped out.

"Heh, good morning, bastard." Naruto's greeting was a sly purr that enflamed Sasuke's ears, much to Itachi's great delight. "Did I wake you?"

When Itachi nudged him softly he dropped a quick, "Yeah."

"Aw, sorry, you. But I disturb with good reason, I believe I owe you a dinner. How does six pm at my place sound?" Naruto asked and a soft greeting bark sounded in the background, along with the obvious sound of a bowl of cereal being assembled.

"Sounds good." Sasuke chirped without any prompting from Itachi. Itachi tried not to laugh but was finding it very difficult.

"Use the front door this time, yeah? Window crawlers put Kurama at unease and that freaks Sakura out and that makes Gaara worry. And that makes Great Grandmama Mayor perform interrogations." Naruto paused and there was the scraping of a stool, Sasuke could imagine Naruto sitting at the Island table with Kurama's head in his lap. "Sasuke, if I get hell for you I'll just send a bouquet to Itachi saying, _Hello brother-in-law._ "

Itachi froze. Sasuke froze too.

"I won't even write _Love, Naruto_. Itachi is incredibly clever he'll know who it is immediately." Naruto went on, unaware. Joyfully imagining the havoc he could cause. "Hell, I'll send one to your parents. _Greetings, in-laws._ After Shisui's reaction, I bet Uchiha-clan-square will light up like New Year's. Let's see how you like that!"

Sasuke cut off any possible reply Itachi could have made before it could even be formed. "Front door, got it, I'll see you at six."

"See ya later, you selfish bastard." Naruto cheered and then the line clicked off.

"Your gooey nickname is bastard? I can't blackmail you with that!" Itachi lamented as he tossed the phone away, making it clack against something.

"That's your primary concern?" Sasuke growled softly as he kicked about trying to get Itachi off him. "If you've broken my phone, Ita."

"Well, if you're happily engaged, I'm pretty upset you didn't tell me first..."

"We're not engaged. He likes teasing me."

"Oh, a man after my own heart. Or, more like after _your_ heart."

"More like, after my life."

"Oh good riddance. I was wondering when you'd leave."

Sasuke rolled his eyes then chose to drop like a dead weight so Itachi couldn't use his own weight and energy against him.

Itachi let him drop, propped his legs up on top of Sasuke's crumpled form and started snooping through the younger man's phone. "He sure uses a lot of kiss face emoticons."

"Itachi! Stop! That's fucking personal!" Sasuke seethed, shimmying to get Itachi's long limbs off of him.

"Finders keepers…" Itachi stated, not even slightly bothered by his Sasuke's failed attempts and snooped shamelessly. "By all that is holy, you're smiling like a child in this photo. What an extremely adorable selfie. The two of you would make a great couple."

"We are a couple." Sasuke spat out, all tetchy. "We literally just scheduled a date."

"Mmm, not according to the text style." Itachi snickered at another picture. "Oh, you two kiss a lot. A lot. Why do you need photographic evidence."

"We don't need. We just like having. There are at least twenty memes, a viral video and a remix about it. Thanks to Shisui, we're plastered across tabloids as a couple, Itach'. And Naruto agrees that we are seeing each other." Sasuke stated, his words were muffled as his left cheek was pressed to his left bicep. The right arm trapped under his torso, trying to wriggle away.

"Mmmm, but these messages aren't very couple-like. They're more pre-couple status. Flirty but cautious. Suggestive but unsure. I think one of you is not on the same page as the other, probably Naruto. It's possible the brother-in-law bit was a nervous jest."

Sasuke stilled a bit, his focus diverted to his curiosity. "What are you saying?"

Itachi silently perused the interactions between the two younger men. "He wants to trust you, but he's holding back."

Sasuke was still deep in thought when Itachi got bored and left to make breakfast.

A few minutes later Sasuke smiled in excitement. This evening is just about him and Naruto. No meddling brothers or PR slash roommates.

 _No more crazy revelation, hopefully._

 _Then again…_ Sasuke realised that they would probably spend the rest of their lives finding out new things about each other. The probability of which excited him greatly.


	14. Dinner Date?

_A/N: Here's an early update with some fluff and other stuff. Shoutout to chibigoku and ovicati for the encouraging comments. 3 Enjoy._

 **14\. Dinner Date?**

{Naruto}

At six-oh-one p.m. Naruto checked the eye hole wondering why Sasuke was late. As it turned out, the man wasn't late. He'd simply been standing for sixty seconds, staring at the door for.

He ran a hand through his hair and then stared some more. He messed with his hair again before he paused midway, probably realising that it wasn't going to look different from the way it always did and that he was just stalling.

Naruto figured he'd let Sasuke knock at his own time. So Naruto went about gathering his jacket, wallet, phone and keys.

At six-oh-seven, Naruto checked his watch and then the eyehole again with a frown. _Why is he standing about looking all nervous? What's there to be so nervous about? What if there is something to be nervous about? Should I be nervous?_

Naruto rolled his eyes and quashed the internal panic that was worming its way in and jerked the door open to face the pale man. He leant against the door and smiled at Sasuke.

Blond hair was still dripping water onto the towel that was around a tan neck for that very purpose; Sasuke's eyes were immediately riveted to every little stream and droplet.

"I see you still have trouble using doors," Naruto said in lieu of a greeting, a smirk on his lips. "That's okay, babe, we'll work on it."

When Sasuke's reply was simply to blink and nod, Naruto rolled his eyes again, in bemusement as he reached out and pulled the man in by his left wrist.

"Relax, these whiskers don't mean I bite… hmm, actually, that's up for debate." Sasuke broke into a smile at that and Naruto internally cheered at the break in the solemn mood. "Ah, another argument about fine details you'd like to have with me?"

Sasuke pulled the blond man close once they were in the living room, wrapping his arms around him and holding on in silence, his cheek to Naruto's chest. Naruto took the hint and hugged back, going quiet as they simply embraced for a while.

"I missed you." Naruto's eyes widened slightly but instead of waiting for a reply Sasuke continued. "I missed you so much it's ridiculous. You even haunt my dreams"

"Dreaming of me in an attempt to spend time with me?" Naruto cracked a smile, the small genuine one with an apology clear in his tone. "I've been too busy. I know. I'm sorry."

"I spent three days in the library and three days out of the library, trying to study, but all I actually did was leave newly made flash cards everywhere and miss you," Sasuke admitted. His tone ever so serious.

Their fronts perfectly aligned in the embrace since Naruto was wearing those pumped up kicks with soles that make you float. He chuckled and rubbed Sasuke's back, hoping his inability to handle this moment wasn't obvious. "Did you count each flash card with, 'he loves me, he loves me not'?"

"Hmmmmm, well, now that you mention it..." Sasuke began thoughtfully. "I think I remember encountering some lovely orange flowers this past week..."

Naruto pulled away, holding Sasuke an arm's length away, hands on his shoulders. Eyes blown wide like saucers. "That was you!"

"Obviously. What, are you hiding another suitor I don't know about?" Sasuke frowned a bit after asking.

"Pft, yeah right." Naruto snorted at the idea dismissively.

A pause then he looked at Sasuke through amber lashes. A curl at the corners of his lips, trying to downplay his flattered smile. "I looked up what they mean."

"Oh?" Sasuke smirked, simply drinking in every inch of the expression on the face in front of him, including the whiskers that weren't hidden from him anymore.

"You know what they mean, don't you?" Naruto asked softly, letting his hands roam up and down the back slowly, hoping to ease the underlying tension there. The rough quality of his voice making the low tone sound even more intimate.

"Of course I do, even though I did choose them by sight." Sasuke placed his hands on Naruto's hips, holding on lightly.

"Remembrance." Naruto reached out and tugged at a lock of Sasuke's bangs in imitation of the move the dark-haired man had affectionately carried out several times before. "And... passionate love?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Tiger lilies are very you, in my opinion."

Naruto laughed and kissed him softly, so softly. "I never thought I'd receive flowers and be happy about them." He led Sasuke to the couch, making him take a seat. "Suitors...Who even says that? Weirdo."

"Well-" Sasuke didn't get far with his reply because Naruto cut him off and at the same time a big black animal was up on the couch beside him, sniffing his ear and hair and shoulder with a wet nose. The tail behind him was swinging in excitement.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, insert a roundabout way of you implying how weird is necessary to like me." Naruto sat down next to Sasuke and the dog climbed over Sasuke to sit in Naruto's lap.

Sasuke smiled at the sight, the gigantic lapdog was on his back in Naruto's lap, his tail was wagging wide arcs as Naruto held him like a big baby. He offered Kurama his hand hoping that conveying amity in this good mood would bring him on the hound's nice-list. Was this the same pup that looked like a vicious hell-hound last time?

"No, Naruto, not to imply the necessity of weirdness, but it somehow supplements an effortlessness to my natural reaction to you." He couldn't help his smile at having turned Naruto's self-deprecation on its head.

Naruto laughed, the sound made Kurama barked excitedly and nipped softly at Sasuke's hand. "Well, then, looks like we're both going to the mental institute if we make it to eighty. Hey, maybe we can be roommates then!"

There was a drop in the banter and Naruto's toes dug into his shoes with anticipation.

"I had a dream about you," Sasuke said softly, his dark eyes brimming with an unexplained sadness. Naruto could hear the underlying strain in Sasuke's voice.

"Oh, what kind of dream? Was I strip pole-dancing while simultaneously surfing on an intergalactic lavafall?" Naruto asked with good-humour as he snuggled to Sasuke's side in a way that implied he's missed that man's body heat.

Sasuke pulled Naruto against him, making sure that Naruto's right side was pretty much completely in contact with Sasuke's left side. Naruto couldn't tell if Sasuke was trying to take physical comfort or offer it. Either way, Sasuke wrapped an arm around him and his hand clenched at the fabric on Naruto's shoulder.

"No, that would be a great, great improvement for my imagination." Sasuke ran his right hand through freshly-showered, blonde hair. Seemingly satisfied to be able to touch it and see the subtle glow of it even when it was looking more like damp sand. The texture too imitates wet sand, clinging to skin softly until forced to let go.

He ran his hand through the hair a couple of times then tugged just enough to get a soft acknowledging grunt from Naruto. "And it was me who was on an epic adventure, on a lavafall...of rage."

"Why rage?" Naruto mumbled. His eyes were closed as Sasuke continued to play with the gilded locks, separating them to air them out.

"Remembered rage and supposed pain."

"Hmm, suppressed pain?" Naruto cracked a single eye open and slanted a look at Sasuke's grave face.

"I have done horrible things and not just when I was working with criminals." When Sasuke turned to look at Naruto the blond man looked down to see Kurama, bored with the inattention, leave to entertain himself elsewhere.

"I know." he replied at last.

Sasuke sighed heavily. "I just-"

Naruto turned immediately and grabbed Sasuke's torso in a surprise hug. Blue eyes when they met black ones were burning with intensity.

"You can't let the past define you, Sasuke. Your present and future are in your hands. Even you can't control what happens."

"But I can control my actions!" Sasuke lobbied. "I did do all the things I did. It was still me."

"Yeah, and you can make sure it doesn't happen again if that's what you want." Naruto narrowed his eyes and surged forward so he was all up in Sasuke's face, hands pressing down on Sasuke's left thigh so that they were practically nose to nose. "You can also learn from the past. You choose to repeat what you think is good, choose to abstain from what you think is bad...that is... if you want to define everything in a dichotomy. Whatever the case, you learn, with time, to live with the past and choose the future over it."

When Sasuke couldn't find a reply he shoved Naruto's face away, making potent blue eyes look somewhere else. The intense gaze was making Sasuke's cheeks burn.

"You know all this, why are you angsting all over the place?" Naruto held on, only shifting a few times to rid himself the hand on his face. If the squirming was any indication, Sasuke's emotionally distraught state happened to shift Naruto to vibrate mode. "It's making me build up with nervous energy."

Sasuke paused long enough to amuse himself with another uneasy squirm from Naruto. When wet hair brushed his cheek as Naruto moved close, right into his space bubble again, Sasuke pressed his cheek against Naruto's neck, pulling the blond into his lap completely.

Naruto who had been leaning excessively against Sasuke's torso and chest

all but fell into Sasuke's lap. "It's just that...I dreamt that I hurt you and that you were willing to let me."

Naruto couldn't move much, Sasuke had wrapped his arms around the tanned man - his arms were trapped against his sides so all he could manage was to awkwardly pat Sasuke's hip in an attempt to comfort. "That's okay, you did not though. Not really. See you can feel me and I am not hurt."

"No, you don't get it… you, you were possessed and you made me carve into you... with a scalpel." Naruto's breath stuttered and Sasuke held him tighter. "It was the worst."

Naruto squirmed again, forcing himself to remain unaffected. "I can imagine. But see, it was just a dream. A product of fear and pain."

"I can't help imagine the things he must have done to you."

"Shit. Hey, c'mon, you. Don't worry about that so much." Naruto shrugged around until he could get his arms free. He held onto the fair face and looked into the dark eyes that somehow looked at him with want. "It made me stronger, okay? And it wasn't that bad, I have a high pain tolerance and I got out alive. Which is the best ending by far."

"No, the best ending would have been if it had never happened at all." Nails dug into Naruto's sides. Sasuke's face pressed against his neck again. "He could have killed you. "

"I had nothing to lose at that point anyway, Sasuke. Living was like dying. And dying, was a tempting release. Fuck, that is not helping right now. See it turned out okay, I gained so much. Sakura and I got out of there and she's been like a little sister to me. And the other kids are all fine too, I keep an eye on 'em."

Sasuke gaped at him for a hot second. Then his tongue poked at his own cheek for a second as he digested the fact he was coming to understand.

He ripped away from Naruto, dropping him on the couch. He put physical distance between them because he was beginning to gather that if he hadn't brought up the dream Naruto would never have told him anything. "You knew what he did? And you still went? Willingly?"

"Yeah," Naruto confirmed as he frowned up at Sasuke who was standing up and looking down at Naruto with a sharp angle. "But, but things are different now. I have a version of family, I have Grandma and Sakura and Gaara and Kurama and...you. Now that I've met you, even death won't separate us."

"Yeah, put a pause on that death do us part thing for a sec. How old were you?"

"Th- thirteen."

"Right after the Fox Fire thing?"

"Mm, yes."

"So much for revelations."

"Revelations?"

"I asked for answers, Naruto. I want to know your past."

"Why does my past matter?"

"Are you fucking kidding me? For context! You might not be what you do, but you're sure as hell affected by it. It makes you who you are. You could have some trauma I don't know that I could be unknowingly feeding."

"No."

"What do you mean no?" Sasuke threw his hands around in exasperation and an affectionate resentment he felt bubbling specially for Naruto.

"Just no. I don't deal with things like that. I accept and store and then express...it's why I paint and act and work out. Sasuke you don't have to take care of me or fix me or tiptoe around me. I'm tough. I'm different. Atypical. A special case. And that can be a good thing or a bad thing. But you don't need to get worked up about it. You will come to know things with time. It's how this whole relationship thing goes. Don't...don't rush it. Because, well, I can't keep up with that."

Sasuke looked at Naruto still sitting on the couch, his eyes blown wide with some revelation Naruto was not privy to. Sasuke blinked a couple of times. "You don't deal with things like that? What do you do? Lock 'em in the attic?"

Those words were fighting words to Naruto, taunting, suggesting the residence of a world of maladies in Naruto's and they were ticking him off.

He took a moment to remind himself that he had chosen - on the day he'd won the drinking challenge - that he was now a lover, not a fighter.

"I'll tell you what I told Sakura. I think that it is okay for me to avoid things until I'm sure I'm emotionally ready to face them. And I am not ready yet." Naruto stated simply, even though his face broken up in confused frown lines and worry.

Sasuke took a deep breath to calm down. "Okay. Okay, okay, but I am warning you now that I just added a nag-Naruto-to-get-therapy day to my monthly calendar."

Naruto made a surprised noise that sounded like a sudden explosive sneeze but was actually a soft, glad, teary laugh. "I can live with that." He nodded, pulling Sasuke to situate him between his knees, running his hands up the Sasuke's sides.

"So, you went to him?" Sasuke paused for an answer and he received a nod.

"And you let him carve you up?" Naruto's shoulders hitched up slightly in defence and he dipped his head in a nod. He took a quick gulp too. His damp hair, teary eyes and slight pout making him look like a sorry, wet poodle.

"With intentions of saving other kids? Kids your age?"

"Yeah. But it worked." Naruto's voice sounded like a creaking door even to him. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions, eh?"

"Naruto are absolutely retarded?"

Naruto squawked with outrage, then he grabbed Sasuke by the denim belt loops and shook him. "Excuse me?! Where do you get off asking - more like attacking - me with questions of the past and then judging me about them anyway? Especially after all the understanding I've given you. Now stop giving me that annoyed look and sit the fuck down."

With that he yanked Sasuke down into his lap. "I was a teenager who'd been raised by drug traffickers, and thieves and information brokers. That's not a sob story, you don't need to feel bad for me or anything, it gave me nerves of steel. I could be slowly bleeding out into my body - haemorrhaging or whatever - but I still wouldn't bat an eyelid until I'm physically incapable of doing so. So yes, I broke out a few kids from a mini-Auschwitz and I'd do it again… If it hadn't burned down… Which I'm starting to guess you had something to do with."

"Naruto that's not- You were a kid! And there are people whose job that is. People who understand the risks and the-"

"Those people never come, you know that. It's why my boyfriend is an ar- Uh, alleged arsonist. I have to admit that that's pretty cool, in a messed up way."

"Naruto!"

"Sasuke!" Naruto sighed. "Look, I'm not saying it was a great idea. I know it wasn't smart or safe. But I thought I could do it, so I did it. And that's the end of that. It's a bit late to be discussing its pros and cons. Can we maybe have a nice dinner where we focus on the present and future? And go back to bartering past information tomorrow? I just want to take you to this cute games and pet-friendly tap-room place I found."

Sasuke scowled, making obvious that he caught the change in topic and that he didn't want to stop consuming every detail of Naruto's past, but, he gave in anyway. "What, you didn't cook for me?"

"I burned the oven mitts when I tried to bake us a simple Au Gratin earlier today. So I decided that we don't cook in this house anymore." Naruto informed him readily. Sasuke rubbed at his own face then laughed softly into his hands. He leant in then and stole several kissed from Naruto.

"Alright then. We can pause."

"Great, so about the death do us part pause I've been wanting to bring up."

"You think you're so charming."

"Pfff, what? Me? Charming? Not at all. I only say what comes to my mind, I can't help that it comes out smooth as fuck."

"Naruto-"

"Get wrecked, Sasuke."

"Stop-"

"Better yet, let me wreck you."

"Naruto. You always propose incredibly delightful suggestions but we never seem to go through with them."

Naruto smiled, all wide, toothy and wily. "Told you, dinner first."

With that Naruto stood up, making Sasuke grab at him with a squeak and hold on tight like an arboreal. He was holding Sasuke up with ease, barely any strain in him as he walked them to the front door. "If you play your cards right, you might see my bedroom."

 _A/N: So, I'm looking for a beta. I feel silly asking because I don't know if anyone will want to or be able to deal with my perfectionist ass..._ _But after that last chapter, yeah, I definitely need an extra pair of eyes._

 _Hit me up if you want in. It's never too late. Hit me up even if I'm on like chapter 700. My Tumblr is hotmessmuffin. Even just to say hi, don't be shy._


	15. Deeper I Dive

15\. Deeper I Dive

{Sasuke}

Sasuke knew he was closely observing every stretch and every shift in Naruto's back, especially his butt, as they walked the short distance to wherever it was they were going; he couldn't help it, it was a great sight, he had no regrets.

He took a moment to thank whatever holy entity ensured Naruto having bought those wonderful jeans that molded just so. He could see the way the slightly faded parts seemed to be in all the right places, giving more dimension for him to enjoy thoroughly. He momentarily entertained the fantasy of seeing the fabric rumple and he gets to peel them off.

The urge to touch was so strong that his hands tightened on Kurama's leash as the two of them trailed slightly behind Naruto who led the way. Restraint was never one of Sasuke's qualities, but for Naruto, he could wait. He could wait a year if he had to. He could wait for ten. He didn't want to, but he could. It wasn't his wish in any way for Naruto feel anything less than appreciated and dinner was a great place to start.

Naruto, on his part, had not stopped raving about the place they were headed to since they left.

"Ichi Raku crafts its own beer. And, Sasuke, get this, it specializes in noodles. Just noodles." His pitch got high with disbelieving excitement. "All kinds, German, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, you name it they have it. Egg noodles, pad thai, rice vermicelli, udon, spaghetti. Every. Thing."

Sasuke liked the fact that Naruto had chosen a place he definitely liked. So, the date wasn't about impressing Sasuke, but instead, sharing parts of himself and introducing Sasuke to his own tastes and likes. It was Naruto caring about what he thought, wanting his opinion on this place he clearly liked very much, as opposed to taking him to some place fancy and trying to impress him.

He got them a table and a few treats for Kurama even before Sasuke was in the door. Kurama had been patient as a saint the whole time, whereas it was Naruto who was bouncing off the walls. Sasuke wondered faintly if he'd see a tail sprout from his back and start wagging.

Kurama was content to simply nibble on his food before going off to socialize, much to Sasuke's surprise. Naruto didn't seem bothered that his dog was going about on his own, probably because the place wasn't too crowded as it was a Wednesday night.

As Naruto walked across the big room to their table Sasuke became acutely aware of how the more attentive gazes latched onto his date.

What an acutely strange talent he had. No one was safe when Naruto was in the room. Sasuke could only describe it as having a gaping void open up in front of you and you could only hope to fill the vacuum until you were pressed up against the tan-skinned cause of it.

A table to the far end grabbed his attention, when a game of Jenga came to an abrupt end, the small tower of blocks toppled over when the person whose turn it was caught sight of something. The other players looked at the loser wondering what the issue was, and then they redirected their sight on whatever he was looking at - who just so happened to be Naruto, having beat Sasuke to their table and pulling out a chair for him with a teasing grin.

It was terrifying in an unusually mundane way. Here he was, in an extremely awkward social situation, being observed as the date of the very attractive, model guy who just walked in. People were probably comparing his extremely ordinary and slightly tired look and comparing him to Mr. All Smiles.

And yet there was still no other place he'd rather be than in front of that grin, causing it. Sasuke, who'd spent most of his time perfecting the art of blending into the background found himself craving attention. Just from Naruto but he still wanted that attention. The idea of ever losing it stole his breath away, in a bad way.

He'd been hoping to be nondescript enough to not attract unwanted attention. Too late for that now, Sasuke a long-time member of the wall-flower community had hoped at least to be missed by being overshadowed by Naruto's sunny and loud disposition, but instead, their contrast made them even more so a spectacle, it seemed.

The light from Naruto highlighted Sasuke and the darkness shrouding Sasuke like a cape added depth to Naruto's nuances.

So there were more people looking and that put Sasuke on edge. Even though they were just checking Naruto out - and why shouldn't they? The jacket he was wearing ended just above his hips, the shirt wasn't very long either so all eyes zoned in on that broad horizon of the shoulders and, subsequently, that heavenly butt.

Maybe it was just Sasuke because he himself wanted to see if he could get Naruto to bend over and attempt to balance a glass of water on that perfect ass.

 _Holy shit, this is going to be a long night._

Naruto looked around and waved to a waiter who promptly appeared with the menus. Anyone else would have had to sit and wave and call out for a few minutes but clearly, even the waiter's eyes had been glued to Naruto.

"I generally can't stand beer, but, this place does a nice Apple Cider. I assume you want something vile and bitter, though... Don't worry, babe, I got you. One Apple Cider and one Belgian Dubbel, please."

The waiter nodded and was gone in a second.

"Hold on, I don't want a double."

"Shh, relax, that's just its name."

"How did you figure I'd want something bitter?" Sasuke asked as he observed the way Naruto's shirt stretched across his arms and shoulders when the blond leaned forward with a conspiratorial smile playing on his lips.

"I asked." Was the simple reply.

"Whom?" Sasuke asked, half-distracted by how the lighting, in general, was dull but the light above their table made for a singularly bright spotlight for golden hair. Shadows deepened and clear blue eyes cut through them. To Sasuke's great surprise Naruto's attention hadn't wavered from him even for a second, even more surprisingly the man was enjoying himself.

That kind of unconscious joy on his face made Sasuke want to keep it there forever.

"Shisui, Itachi, Karin, Suigetsu, Juugo. Oh, and Kakashi. Just to cover all the basis." Naruto shrugged. "I figured an audience vote was valid because you're bad at volunteering that kind of info."

And so, suddenly, there was a menu in his hands, had the waiter left it? Sasuke wouldn't be able to tell if you paid him. If the other people in the room had a hard time looking away from Naruto, they had no idea what it was like being the one with all the blue-eyed focus on him. He was magnetized, unable to drift further than an allocated orbit.

"I also gleaned that you have a love-hate-love relationship with tomatoes. This place does spaghetti. Do you want some sun dried tomatoes in Arrabiata, or, do you want to try some Miso Ramen with me?"

Naruto punctuated the question with a smile. Sasuke felt like smiling back. Sasuke felt a new rip in his walls and he paid no mind to them. All these feelings layering upon each other endlessly and the walls could tumble down around him at break-neck speed and he wouldn't mind.

At this rate, Naruto could rip his heart out and Sasuke would let him so that he'd get to watch Naruto perform the task itself because it would be a sight to behold. Sasuke took a big, slow gulp of water, wondered if choosing Miso Ramen would get him bonus points.

"We can order two different things and share both too," Naruto suggested with a smaller smile there for some reason. "Or we could both try something new. I wonder what is this Mee Goreng?" Naruto was pulling off this one-sided conversation flawlessly.

Sasuke wondered if Naruto practiced one-sided conversations to be so good at them. He also pondered if being more experimental and outgoing would get him bonus points.

"Nee, Sasu-chan, if you don't like noodles we can totally go somewhere else. I don't mind at all." Naruto peered at him over the menu, were those blue eyes always that big and open? Or had they been pried so for the added benefit of watching Sasuke struggle to combat their effects?

 _Naruto, do you know what you do to me?_ "I will eat anything you feed me, Naruto," Sasuke admitted. _Poison or ambrosia, it's your pick._

"I'm not fussy, it's a bad idea to be fussy about food when it comes to survival."

Naruto studied his face for a bit then nodded. Sasuke watched the minute changes in Naruto's face as he read him and Sasuke had the urge to...smile. "Okay, yes, I agree. But... now we have the luxury to be picky, Sasu-chan."

Sasuke's blood rushed and hear pumped and cheeks pulled at the corners of his lips. He felt like smiling. Rather than hide, he wanted to expose himself to Naruto. Share with the man who he really was and learn, in return, about him.

The feelings bubbling in him choked him up a bit. And it was just the first date. Would he get used to it as time went on? Or would he simply get more emotional as the time went by?

Sasuke's eyes graphed every inch of exposed personality to a permanent recorder in the back of his mind. So as to forever have them within reaching distance to constantly remind him why fighting to stay alive had been the best course of action all those years ago.

Even the way Naruto ate, simply the way his lips parted for chopsticks was hell on Sasuke's tightly wound restraint. Had Naruto made it his life's goal to cut rips at the only seal holding Sasuke back from jumping him? Because he needed the feel of the man. Needed the feel of his skin, to hear and feel the reaction when he did.

The only seconds of relief came when the waiter would disturb them and tear Sasuke's laser focus away from Naruto long enough to get a breath before he was gone and Sasuke was blissfully drowning in Naruto again.

Lost, lost in Naruto, so completely, contently lost. Sasuke was so lost that he spilled half of his second drink, right onto Naruto's shirt.

For a long, distended moment where time warped - and so did distance so he could save the image of Naruto in a soaked shirt for the benefit of all involved - he came to believe he was having a nightmare. He'd never been clumsy. He was very particular about his movements, he was self-possessed enough to know where every limb was at every moment.

How the drink had spilled was beyond him. He was surprised enough that it took him five minutes to apologize. Five minutes Naruto had thankfully spent laughing at Sasuke's utter embarrassment.

"Kick me if I'm wrong, Sasuke, but are you nervous?" he asked with a joyous glint in his eyes, his grin teasing again.

Sasuke found himself agreeing with the tempted devil within him that suggested this very grin could probably save him on his deathbed or deal out the final blow.

When no reply was forthcoming Naruto buckled down and looked him in the eyes for a long, deep-diving second. "You generally are very quiet but you're even quieter today. You're generally very aware but you seem lost in yourself a bit. What's on your mind?"

"You," Sasuke said.

"Me?" Naruto's slight frown was gone in an instant. "Do tell."

"Okay, it is my thinking that if you choose to simply touch me, I am confident I'll explode into flames."

Two blue eyes looked like gems the size of the Pink Panther each. "That doesn't sound good."

"Maybe, maybe not, but dear God, I want it." Sasuke tried not to rasp when he spoke but his throat was dry again. He took another swallow of water.

Naruto gulped, his face showcasing that the comment had not fallen on deaf ears. "Are you... hitting on me?"

"I'm just being honest; if you feel hit on, then that's just a happy coincidence." Sasuke shrugged. His skin tingled, his hair was standing on end with excitement.

Naruto laughed. "You sneaky bastard. And I was starting to really worry!"

"Hmm, where did you get those pants?"

"Just a store near my house, why?"

"I want to peel them off you so much:"

Naruto flushed a beautiful pink and played with his glass to buy some time before replying. "Well, I'm going to have to peel the shirt off anyway."

Sasuke flushed this time. Did he go there too soon, what else could he have said? A plethora of better options, he'd bed. Was he ruining the night? He didn't want to ruin it. He'd never felt his heartbeat in his throat in a good way. "I'm really sorry...I don't-"

"No, no, I just meant... It'd be a damn shame to peel the shirt off but leave the pants on..." Naruto's voice sounded like sin as his tone got all rough and soft while saying anything remotely suggestive.

Sasuke felt the light bulb blink on in the back of his mind then promptly short-circuit. He couldn't believe his ears, was this just flirting or was it a promise? Because good god he might die if it was just talk.

Not that he was just after sex. Just that he's never wanted someone enough to want sex with them at all. Was the intensity with which he wanted the man before him even normal?

Sasuke had to stop Naruto from ordering a third round of drinks. "I want every moment to be crystal clear." he remarked, and that had been that.

The food was good. No, it was great. Sasuke was impressed even though that wasn't the sole reason they were here. Sasuke didn't think he was likely to visit the place by himself though.

It was more of a restaurant to visit for special occasions. Or maybe it was because of the fact that his first visit was a special occasion and now he'd never see it outside that emotional context. HMykFbiCnFm|~j


	16. Ties That Bind

{Naruto}

Leaving Ichi Raku was an embarrassingly amusing affair. Though neither of them was remotely drunk, they were both high-strung enough that it turned into a game of knocking over empty glasses and dropping napkins, picking them up only to drop them again.

The tension was palpable.

It made Naruto's hands shake as they made their way out into the cool night air. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, offering up a slight curl of his lips because Sasuke always did this annoyed disbelieving nose twitch whenever Naruto did the full blown grin mask.

Kurama roamed ahead of them sans leash and Sasuke seemed to be worried he'd wander off by the way he insisted on facing whichever direction the dog bounded off into.

Sasuke was quite the observer, Naruto had noted. A silent watcher. Sasuke had stared at him throughout the two hours they'd spent in the restaurant. Just like the first day he'd seen him at the cast and crew mixer. Like the day he'd stared into his soul at the little drinking party he'd hosted with his friends.

Every look from those dark eyes wraps around him and seeps into his bones. The edge in that gaze peels at his skin, seeking to go deeper. Seeking to uncover.

Every frown and crevice; an ask, a demand. The silent speech makes roots and burrows deep into him. Threatening to take up a permanent residence.

That look calls to him like a bat signal, like a sign of need. And he wants to respond. He wants to take that jump off the ledge. But however, can he trust Sasuke to stand await and catch him when he does finally drop?

Naruto looks away when Sasuke, satisfied that Kurama isn't about to race away forever, turns back. He checks his phone, hoping to delay meeting eyes with Sasuke fucking Uchiha as he used to be dubbed in his memory with a scathing, venomous connotation.

When Naruto had proposed the 'winner gets to choose to take the other on a date' thing he'd never expected to sit in a restaurant talking to himself the whole time. The more he spoke the stupider he felt.

What am I doing? This isn't part of the plan. It was supposed to be a don't mess with me Uchiha showdown at dinner. He wanted to drag out every skeleton they had and lay them out and make it hella clear what Sasuke was getting into by flirting with him.

Because, that's what it was, right? Those delving, searching looks? Because if it ain't flirting, Naruto needs to get a bodyguard. Maybe he should get one anyway. Last night he'd been accosted at his residence by fans for the first time. He could still hear the noises fresh in his mind.

Anyway, he'd wanted to give Sasuke exactly what he was looking for, all the answers, all the honesty. Maybe even a threat about the risks of heart-breaking, because Naruto could see things were escalating between them rapidly and on their own.

But then he'd come over looking like - for all intents and purposes - a kicked pup. It was all Naruto could do not to smother him at simply the look. The part about the nightmare shook more than he'd like to admit.

Was that supposed to some kind of ominous premonition? Was Sasuke doomed to hurt him? Was Naruto doomed to change with the oncoming fame too much for this relationship? Or was he going to have a misunderstanding and force Sasuke to sever ties? What was that damn dream about?

"Hey," Sasuke called out to him and Naruto stopped walking. He realized Sasuke was several steps behind. "What are you thinking so hard about?"

Naruto turned to look at him, a slight furrow was clear between his brows. He sighed. Maybe it'd have been a much better idea to do the dinner at home, at least Sasuke wouldn't have disappeared into his shell on the very first date.

Naruto completely blamed himself for the lack of foresight. He'd always been one to be blinded by the excitement of an idea, letting it overshadow any flaws. He sighed, couldn't be helped now.

An idea to salvage the date and dialogue struck Naruto as he watched Sasuke purposefully bridge the gap between them, Kurama right by his side.

A smile from him interrupted whatever Sasuke was going to say next. "Dessert?"

"Uh, I'm not much of a chocolate person," Sasuke warned with a nod of acceptance, at least he wasn't hoping for the date to end early.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised. But I was thinking more like, banana pancakes, mostly because it's basically the only thing I know how to make." Naruto hooked his elbow around Sasuke's arm and dropped his hand back into his jacket pocket. "Oh wait, and cup ramen."

A chuckle burst out from Sasuke at the admission, a nervous edge too, maybe at the proximity? "How am I not surprised?" he asked, dark eyes clearly burning with mirth.

"Hey!" Naruto protested with an exaggerated pout that made Sasuke's lips quirk up.

"I like the idea of banana pancakes." The dark-haired date replied as they continued down the street.

"Good." Naruto agreed. "Because I like the idea of you and me."

"Good." Sasuke reiterated in the same tone Naruto had used.

"I like it when you talk..." Naruto slanted him a look.

Sasuke correctly picked up on the silent question. "Sometimes I have nothing to say."

"Yes, well, I haven't had twenty-five years with your voice in my head so I'm very keen on hearing a lot of it for-" Naruto cleared his throat and smiled dubiously, not giving away his internal break slam. "From now on."

For the next twenty-five? Hold those horses, cowboy! This is the first fucking date. Don't fucking propose!

Sasuke's eyes were attached to Naruto's face again, looking way too closely for comfort. Naruto was starting to squirm. And what's this under his skin? A boiling pot of spicy curry? Lava? Who knows?

Naruto felt the urge to let out a vague maniacal laughter.

Somehow a single dark look from those eyes and Naruto is ready to dive off a cliff, mostly to cool his heated...everything. But yes, cliff-diving felt like a great idea.

Naruto opened the door to the apartment. Kurama bounded off to the kitchen, openings three drawers and ducking between Naruto's legs with a big ass bone.

"Hey!" Naruto yelped as he almost tripped over the dog. He'd grabbed onto the counter with some foresight, dancing out of the way with an awkward hip jerk to avoid colliding with the blank blur. "Damn you."

There was a replying bark as Kurma settled on the window seat with his bone.

"Damned wild wolf!" Naruto threw back as he chucked a small yellow stress ball at the dog who jumped out of his seat, grabbed the ball and returned to his seat it with a joyful yap.

Sasuke looked on with a mild mix of fascination. "He just does whatever he wants."

"Yeah, he's a lot like Snowy, you know, from Tintin. The unruly mutt," Naruto raised his voice while referring to Kurama and the black Dane barked back with a mildly aggressive growl. "Is very smart and well trained to boot. Except they look like exact opposites."

"Where'd you get such a great dog anyway?" Sasuke asked as he took the island table stool offered to him.

Naruto's smile melted quickly. But a new smile took its black immediately. "He's a rescue. Chocolate chips in your banana pancake?"

"Just a little honey."

"Okay, honey," Naruto replied as he pulled out some utensils and ingredients. All his movements were smooth.

Sasuke chuckled. "You don't miss anything."

"Not a thing." Naruto agreed as he cracked a couple of eggs and started beating him.

Sasuke's eyes roved down. "Shouldn't you change that shirt?"

Naruto looked at his slightly ruined shirt, there was a patch of dried dull stain on the chest. "Aiming for the heart so soon is rather unhealthy for us, I think."

To Naruto's surprise, there was an edge of teeth in Sasuke's smile even as his eyes were hidden from view soon. "But not impossible."

Naruto laughed out heartily. "No, not impossible." he agreed softly.

The sound of the bowl being put down made dark eyes look up, meeting lovely rich indigo blue that probably stained everything they set eyes on. The air seemed to sizzle between them for a moment then blue was gone, leaving Sasuke's eyes to follow hands suddenly undoing the jacket that was loosely zipped up just at the bottom. Which somehow looked good on him.

"I guess you're right. I should take it off." When Sasuke's eyes flashed to the pants Naruto's smile pushed against his cheeks tight, transforming into a grin. "I'll leave the pants for you."

Naruto shrugged off his jacket letting it fall onto the stool beside him, then he was unbuttoning his soiled shirt. Sasuke's eyes clung to every inch of skin the shirt pulled away from. The shirt joined the jacket on the stool as Sasuke drooled at the unmitigated view of a defined torso.

Naruto turned to put the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

A tattoo of a wild thunderstorm over a troubled ocean was featured on the skin at Naruto's right wing bone and shoulder. The left edges of that tattoo bled into the sharp side profile of a woman with features similar to the ones on Naruto's face, laughter lines and a cheeky smirk included.

Naruto could feel Sasuke's eyes scanning the remainder of the back, there were stitches and scars in all kinds of places, one word sat over a bunch of scars at the lower back. Erised.

A bunch of cherry blossoms seemed to hang down from nowhere in particular on his left shoulder, spreading down his arm to his elbow and creating a dappling of skin peeking through. The branch of cherry blossoms seemed to create an umbrella effect over the lady's side profile.

Just under this was a blurry outline of a shadow standing in front of a light source bright enough to erase any distinguishable features, right in the middle of the back. Dark long shapes, nine of them, twisted around this individual like a frame. To the right of the frame was a calabash-shaped container tilted over so it was pouring a never ending flow of water that trickled under the central image and washed down Naruto's left lower back. The course of the stream separated and altered several times creating many little whirlpools.

To the right of the gourd, were the lettered carved into Naruto by the faction of a criminal syndicate that was presently looking for him.

"Like what you see?" Naruto asked as he went about setting a pan on the stove, the batter now mixed.

Sasuke's voice failed him when he tried to let out a yeah so he cleared a voice and instead took the question as an invitation to follow the artwork. "When did you get these?"

"Most of them when I was fifteen or sixteen, but the whirlpools are new."

"They blend so seamlessly I wouldn't think they were newly added."

"Yeah, well, Sai does a good job."

Sasuke paused. "Sai? Itachi's creepy set director guy? That Sai?"

"Yeah, we're friends." Naruto supplied but left it there.

"Friends." Sasuke repeated in surprise. "Okay... The cherry blossoms?"

"Sakura."

"Were you two, um, uh, ever together?"

"We did kiss once…" Naruto's voice sounded lost in the memory. "It ended in three seconds, it was super awkward. It felt like kissing Kurama but without the slobber. I think it's fair to say she's way more sister than I'd thought she'd be to me. Sister and manager all in one."

"They're called momagers in the business."

"Shut up! She's not my mom!"

"No, I suppose not." Sasuke's hand traced the woman's well-sketched facial features, using Naruto's skin colour as hers, the eyes were filled in a deep violet. There was a lull, then Sasuke posed the question. "Nothing for your dad?"

"I want to, but… I can't think of anything… I have all this space in the bottom left and I was thinking of this upside down spinning tornado that looks like it originated from the spot the lightning touched down… And maybe opening into clouds... But, yeah... I'm not sure..."

"What's the significance of the water?"

"The... water seems to start from the sand gourd but there's really more water inside. A lot. Enough to overflow. It's kinda like... Just because the story is now all waterfalls and whirlpools, doesn't mean, you forget it used to be stagnation and still waters." Naruto's skin felt ablaze in the wake of Sasuke's exploring hands as they slid lower and created tiny swirls, following the swill of the spinning pools.

"And the gourd?"

"Gaara."

"Sabaku? The 'demon king' of special effects makeup?"

"Ah, yes. Have you seen his YouTube channel? He does all his best work during Halloween seasons."

"How do you know him?"

"Very well, actually."

"No, as in he's a fucking recluse. How did you get to know him?" Sasuke wrapped his arms around Naruto from behind, peeking as Naruto skillfully wraps the thing pancake around banana slices.

"You get pretty chummy when you go through shit together."

Sasuke pressed his cheek to the shoulder he was looking over, letting his lips pressed to the cut of thunder strike.

Naruto's shoulders tensed for a moment before relaxing. "That one is yours."

"What?"

"The lightning tattoo? That one's yours."

Sasuke pulled back immediately, hands still gripping Naruto's sides. "Mine?"

"The lightning strike that started it all. The whirlpools, the sand storm...the very beginning."

Sasuke swayed in his decision for a bit. "I'm so sorry," he scratched out. Selfishly hoping for restitution.

"Thanks. But don't be. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here… I used to think of it as a reminder to trust carefully. They say lightning strikes a place only once, like a cruel joke, that because lightning never has to strike more than once, it burns everything it touches. And I had promised myself I wouldn't set myself up for a burn like that ever again."

Naruto plated the last pancake and turned in Sasuke's arms. Finally glimpsing the torn up expression on the fair face.

"But now."

Dark eyes looked up in surprise at the change in Naruto's tone from somber to rough. Liquid regret streamed down from the left eye. "I suppose they say lightning never strikes twice because the second time is more of a pleasant electrification to those that can survive the first hit. What's that saying, 'you don't deserve me at my best if you can handle me at my worst' is it?"

"It wasn't a test, Naruto." Sasuke drifted away from Naruto, but the blond pulled him back by the belt loops.

"It was. Maybe not a test engineered by you, but it was a test for us anyway." Naruto reached up, pushing away the bangs falling in Sasuke's eyesight before cupping Sasuke's face, making him look back up, rubbing the guilty tears away. "Don't be upset. I'm glad about who I am today and you're the one who put that into motion."

When Naruto tugged at Sasuke again the older man threw his arms around Naruto, holding onto him. "I'm still sorry. I'll fix it the best I can. I'll help you find your parents, I promise."

Naruto stared in disbelief at the back he was holding onto. "You will?"

"Of fucking course. It's the least I can do." Sasuke's nails scraped lightly at Naruto's back as his hands curled from open palm to fists while they remained in the embrace with Naruto leaning against the stove.

"Um, okay. Now, which pancake do you want? The triangles ones or the squares?"

Sasuke was silent for a bit after the question, until the sniffling finally broke into soft giggles. Naruto was delighted to hear the sounds coming from the face buried in the crook of his neck. "Only you could seamlessly pull off an awkward segway."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I asked you which pancakes you wanted not stage directions for a romcom, Sasuke."

Sasuke looked sideways at Naruto, then, quick as you like, took a nibble at Naruto's earlobe. "You're evil, teasing me like this by cooking pancakes while shirtless."

"Oh? I thought I was being considerate and putting on a show for you."

"I'll take the squares."


	17. Glowing Eyes

**17\. Glowing Eyes**

Please be advised, Chapter 17 is 17+ - R rated or M, whatever. Enjoy my first smutting attempt!

 **{sasuke}**

"Good god, I'm so full." Sasuke sighed heavily, leaning back against the dishwasher. His voice had been soft in the face of all the charge that the air carried, it had kept him from sitting down. Sasuke couldn't bring himself to settle enough to be really relax only enough to portray a semblance of it.

The atmosphere had been slowly twisting and turning on itself all night, from the moment he approached the building at the start of the evening, all through their pre-dinner discussion, and the dinner, and on the way back, all the way up to that very moment.

Even though his antsy regret had been eased by Naruto's breezy take-on-the-world attitude, somehow, the air had turned from a soft pleasant sparking in the background to thick marshmallow gooey ness that he was finding it hard to breathe through.

Naruto's replying grin was pleased; the praise seemed enough to make him fluff him up like the pancake. "Thanks!"

"Where did you learn to make pancakes like these? How are they so good?" Sasuke let Naruto relieve him of his plate, the blond dipped his face a tad too close for the plate-taking to be anything but a hoax to get into his personal space.

A stolen kiss and he was gone, still shirtless and tan skin, maneuvering around all the items in the kitchen he expertly avoided. Sasuke wondered for a second if he would be able to continue the conversation.

"Oh, uh, it's because the banans add a natural sweetness, and I know how to pick the best banans!" Naruto turned to the sink with the dishes, running some water over every utensil used, to clean them on the spot. "I made street pancakes for roughly eight to nine months before I moved here."

Sasuke paused for moment, going from sharply amused about the use of the word banans by Naruto instead of bananas to surprise. "What? Where?"

"In Bangkok."

"Are you kidding me?"

Naruto chortled at Sasuke's tone. "No. That's why they're so good. These babies never failed to bring back customers, and then some. Kept it open twenty-four-seven, made a killing in six months. Enough to pay for my ticket here."

Sasuke's jaw actually worked loose. "You saved for airline tickets by selling street pancakes."

"It was time to get away, and Sakura said offered spot me on my first two months of rent. So I came to town, worked coffee shops and theatres for at least groceries until I met Itachi last year and you can probably guess the rest."

Sasuke sat there looking at yet another olive branch by Naruto. A piece of his recent, uncomplicated history. "I'm studying for the law entrance exam."

Naruto glanced at him again, the small smile on his face, taking a seat at the back of his mind. "Oh yeah? How come?"

Sasuke saw no reason for subterfuge. "I know enough of the inner workings of one criminal syndicate to probably dismantle all of them."

Naruto stopped short. "For real?"

"Yes."

Naruto paused in the middle wiping his hands. "But why study law for that? There are enough lawyers out there…" Naruto's head tilted in puzzlement.

"I'm not trying to put my family in the crossfires." Sasuke reasoned. "My priority is that they're protected."

"That's kind of a long game you're playing." Naruto's eyes followed Sasuke as walked over to the sink and fixed the tap so it wasn't only half shut. "Don't you think that, at least in witness protection, they'll have some safety?"

"Naruto, I'm sure you have heard of the word assassin? You know, new age ninjas?" At Naruto's flat look, Sasuke shook his head. "They're safer this way."

"Or…" Naruto dropped for a pause then bolstered by whatever resolve his shoulders tightened. "Let me do it."

Sasuke was very surprised at the startlingly steeled features on Naruto's normally soft and friendly expressions. Also, somehow Naruto had decided he could meddle in this? Sasuke could barely contain a laugh. "What are you, nuts?

"I don't have a family to risk and I know the inner working of a syndicate pretty well too." Naruto put the towel down on the counter and leaned his hip against it.

"Naruto, this is _my_ goal, _my_ battle. I can't just put it on you, I want to do this myself." Sasuke reached out to touch Naruto's arms.

Naruto folded his arms to stop Sasuke. "But there's something holding you back from going full throttle. These things won't be an obstacle for me!"

"You have your own goals. You need to find your parents."

"Yeah and finding them so soon will ensure they're caught in the crossfire too. I have time, I have a bunch of things to take care of."

"What things?"

Naruto shrugged. Had he specified, Sasuke wouldn't be so upset over it but the fact that Naruto has decided to keep mum about this was telling. "Dangerous things."

"Yeah, very dangerous. Sasuke, I'm going to have to ask you to... give me some space when that happens."

Sasuke was taken aback. "What you think I'm going to leave you alone in a dangerous situation?"

"You're clean now, Sasuke. You're out. There's no need for you to get involved-"

"Like hell there isn't!" Sasuke felt all his emotion roil into a big ball of flame.

Naruto shook his head, even as his fists clenched at the rough tone Sasuke had used. "I'm not doing this because danger is fun, I don't have a choice in the matter. But you do!"

"Like hell! I would never be able to live with it if something happened to you! Knowing I could have prevented it in someway." Sasuke pushed forward, getting into Naruto's personal space.

Naruto seemed to sway on his spot. "Sasuke..." But he had no words to reply to that. "I'm… I can handle myself. If..." he looked around and rubbed at his face. "If something goes down, I'm the last person you need to worry about. You being first, if you ask me."

"That's absolutely unfair, for you to insist I be safe while you insist of dealing with whatever alone."

"Yeah well, this is my goal right now and I want to do it myself." Naruto deadpanned.

"Oh! That's clever! Throw my words back at me!" Sasuke

"Some paths have to be walked alone." Naruto's voice was a cutting blaze. Where had that come from? How had the night slid so far?

Sasuke took a breath, his fear of rejection, his painfully tamed devotion to the man in front of him all amalgamated into a heady cocktail. Then he took another deep breath.

"Some people won't let you walk paths alone. I know what it's like, cutting all ties and being the lonely cowboy, as _fitting_ as it may seem it only makes sure you can't prevent other things. People come into your life for a reason. I'm here because you need my help, so let me in."

Naruto huffed although not in bad humour. "Sasuke, you genuinely don't need to worry about me… Hell, I- I may have never killed anyone. But... I've hurt people enough that… it might even be worse than death."

Sasuke opened his mouth to deny but Naruto bulldozed right through the beginnings of a protest.

"I am _not_ the angel you're fixating on. I didn't walk out of hell unaffected. I survived hell by beating down every demon I faced at its own game. I fought fire with fire and spat poison for poison. I've probably broken more bones - mine and other people's - than I dare to count. I regret to inform you but the man you are supposedly falling in love with, is a front. He's… he's not me!"

"Don't tell me what I feel for you is fake. Especially after theat us against the world thing."

"No that's not what I said. I'm not denying your feelings, simply the existence of the person you feel these things for."

"You don't actually think I am going to buy that, do you? I have spent time with you, I know who you are now. And who you pretend to be makes no difference to me in the face of who you are when you are with me."

"Sasuke, I am trying to reason with you."

"No, you are trying to run away from me! From this, from us." Sasuke's tone was stretched rough over his words, with emphasis to every pause.

Naruto didn't reply, instead the lines on his face took on a level of terrifying clarity. "I don't think I'm really human anymore, Sasuke."

"That's changing the subject. And so what? Do you remember what you called it a few sentences ago? You think saying a bunch of unpleasant things that defined your past will _cure_ my _fixation_?"

"Sasuke."

"No!" Sasuke sounded out sharply. He shook his head and pushed at Naruto in frustration, his voice suddenly louder and angrier. "I was hoping to stay the night and count your breaths till I fall asleep! If you take that away from me right now, Naruto, I will rip you a new asshole."

"Sasuke." Naruto's hands came up in a placating gesture, he'd only seemed to get more calm the angrier Sasuke had gotten.

"You want to fight me for it? Because that's the only way I'll leave right now."

"I'm not going to fight you Sasuke, you're my boyfriend."

"Then act like it!"

Naruto sighed very heavily then let out a rough laugh. "Fine."

"Fine!" Sasuke gruffed, slowly sinking into a bad mood despite the fact that Naruto had yielded.

But Naruto refused anything of that sort. "I have a little surprise."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows in curiosity. "There better not be a prisoner in the basement."

Naruto reached over and shoved Sasuke back slightly, making Sasuke sway back half a step and then back to his former spot again. "Is that what you think of me?"

Sasuke shook his head. _You're not distracting me that easily._ "Naruto, you can't leave me out of anything dangerous. You can't do things alone. You need back up."

"I'll talk to you about my plans, but that's as far as I'll let you in if you insist on doing your syndicate persecution on your own."

"Pardon?"

"I don't think I stuttered, boyfriend. This is give and take. You push, I'll push back. You can't lord over me to your heart's content, and you can't have any satisfaction at my safety without letting me have a say with yours."

Sasuke took a step back. "You're unreasonable."

"That's not true, you're bargaining and reasoning with me surprisingly well, _boyfriend_. Most people give up."

The neat honesty of his sentence surprised Sasuke. "Is that what you really think?"

"Yeah, people get angry at me easily and then stay that way. You… I don't know," Naruto ran his hand through his hair and it imitated a docile porcupine, sitting back because of his still wet hands. "Heh, maybe I'm just weak to your pretty face?"

Sasuke let out a snort at that. He found himself struggling with Naruto everyday and tried to hold on desperately, but Naruto seems to think that they're doing pretty well and still tries to convince Sasuke to stop trying. _Oh the damn idiot!_

"You… Wh- why…? Hey! Why are you laughing?" Naruto's eyes pulled wide in bare fascination as Sasuke jumped from upset to laughing his lungs out.

"Fine. We'll...see."

Naruto smirked. Naruto pulled Sasuke closer, letting his hands simply sit on the older man's hips.

"Don't give me that look."

"What changed your mind?"

"I will still kick your ass one day."

"Whatever, I'm not afraid of pain!"

"Good!" Sasuke jumped Naruto, making him yell out in surprise. He grabbed him in a headlock and gave him a noogie to end all noogies.

"What the fuck! Get off me! Help! Help! My boyfriend's a psycho!" Naruto squirmed and yelled and sometimes giggled if Sasuke happened to find the right spot with any body part.

Kurama came racing to the rescue but the second he reached the pair he simply jumped at them, bowling them over to the floor and sat on the pair like they were his new bed.

"Got off me, you absolute dick heads!" Naruto made up the base of the pyramid, somehow he was holding up just fing, if a little squashed and breathless.

"Now, now, Naruto," Sasuke shifted so the dog was seated on long legs encased in tight denim. Straddling Naruto's back, holding himself up just enough so as to not completely crush him the lungs underneath, Sasuke still leaned forward. "that's no way to talk to one of the few people who can stand you."

"Oh, fuck off!"

Sasuke felt another bubbling sensation in his chest, a joy unlike any other. "I want you, Naruto."

Naruto went still under him. His voice cracked when he muttered Sasuke's name.

Sasuke brushed his lips against the back of Naruto's ear, earning himself a surprised gasp. "You said you had something to show me. I hope it's the same something I've been wanting to see."

Naruto cleared his throat, his hands pressing down against the ground, pushing back against Sasuke who didn't let up on the man under him. "Uh, hey, Sasuke, maybe..."

Sasuke let his lips wandered down the stretch of skin between ear and hairline, making a path down to the neck before taking a nip. "Yes?"

"Let me up so I can show you?"

Naruto's room was a piece de resistance that was directly proportional to this personality. A string of little lights draped across a wall, making pretty dotted lines from the curtains diagonally down to mattresses.

How whole bed was simply a tall stack of mattresses bound together with cloth. Cushions and pillows and the softest blanket sat a top the bed.

It was clear that more money was spent on art tools than furniture. Two easels sat facing a single stool obviously stolen from the kitchen. The window behind the easels was heaped with bottled of paints, interspersed with tubes all of them of varying sizes - it was an intricately delightful array of colour precariously balanced.

A wall was covered in a hundred sketches, body postures, muscle definition. A hand in detail here an eye in abstract there. Two silhouettes entwined like branches here and a face in charcoal, with piercing dark eyes and very soft looking hair somewhere.

Sasuke paused and looked back at that sketch tucked in between a minimalist sketch of a sunset on a sea in orange and blue ink done on a faded receipt on the left of it and the very detailed head of a palm tree in a strong wind done in paint on the other side

The eyes weren his, he knew it, because he saw that face in the mirror all the time. But they were alive in a whole other way than he'd ever seen in any reflective surface.

 _Is that how I look at him?_ The expression in the set of the eyebrows and the pull of the lips added a spark to the face that was smug yet ardent. The tilt in the lips were like a challenge, or an invite to follow him into the sunset off set by the blue, blue sea. _Is that how I look to him?_

When Sasuke was done observing the little sketch his eyes caught on several other half done pieces, or little in depth scribble of the same keen eyes and lips. When his eyes made them back to check on Naruto, he realised the man was watching him silently.

For the first time those blue gates were opened to him and a fierce sincerity poured out, spilling like the water from the gourd on Naruto's back. The difference was that the whirlpools in torrid action were residing under Sasuke's skin.

"Come here." Sasuke requested softly but with no space left for argument.

Naruto stepped forward once.

Then a second time.

As if giving him a choice, a moment to change his mind.

When Sasuke simply sat on the bed facing Naruto, and didn't move until the blond had traversed his way to the mattresses, he seemed to get the message.

Naruto situated himself between Sasuke's legs and looked down at the man sitting on his bed. He reached out with his palm, it was warm against Sasuke's cheek, the thumb brushed against his lower lip parting it slightly from the upper lip and Sasuke's breath left him in a rush.

"You're killing me, Naruto." Sasuke cracked out as Naruto let his nails softly trace up into Sasuke's hairline, running along his temple. Sasuke shivered at the touch, it's slow drag seeping deeper. The feeling was far more intimate than he's ever felt with his clothes off in front of anyone.

"No, you're the one killing me. Every day, morning, noon and night. Your face, your eyes, your sighs, your secret smiles to yourself when you think I'm not looking."

"If you're not looking, how would you know?"

"I can still hear."

"Just because I can't see it doesn't mean I can't hear it?"

"Is that why you want me talk talk more."

"More like, I want to make you smile more and if I can at least hear it, I know I'm doing okay."

Sasuke shook his head and gave up on waiting on Naruto, He grabbed him by the back of the thighs and pulled him into his lap and then swung him around. Placing him down on the bed, he hovered over him for just a second, brushing his lips against Naruto while settling himself comfortably in between long legs.

"I don't know if this is a good idea, Sasuke." Naruto breathed out softly. His eyes were blown, black slowly eating at blue. His breath stuttered when Sasuke pressed his left hand to Naruto's chest.

"Oh, I know it is." Sasuke said, taking a moment to pull away and pull his shirt off.

Naruto's gaze raked down Sasuke's face - a hum of approval sounding out from him – down his chest and stomach, zeroing in on his belt buckle. "Good point."

"What?" Sasuke asked, watching Naruto's pink tongue peep out to lick at his lips.

"Nothing, you just make very valid argument." He breathed out, his fingers dancing up Sasuke's abdomen.

Sasuke smirked down at him. "I didn't make any argument."

"Oh, sorry, were you saying something? I was talking to your body." Naruto let the venturing hand slither up to sit at Sasuke's waist. Naruto was splayed out on the bed under him, in a wonderful display of vulnerability, but one hand Sasuke was gone. Anyone else would have gotten their hands tied up at that.

"You're an idiot," Sasuke let his hands rest on Naruto's knees, unmoving now that he had a semblance of control over the pace, observing as Naruto slowly relaxed into the bed, eyes racing everywhere like he'd thirsted for this sight and was content to just look.

"Your idiot," white teeth flashed up at Sasuke, darkened indigo eyes meeting his, hair a halo of light gold, some parts burnished orange with the sparse fairy lighting making a faux headboard to his left.

Sasuke took the other tan hand in his, holding it for just a moment before, putting it down on his shoulder. It shifted to the back of his head and he was immediately tugged down into a hot kiss. And so the spell was cast.

Words evaporated from between them, they didn't need words anymore.

Their bodies did the talking.

Push for pull and tug for tug.

Neither of them letting the other have the last say.

Then there was a sound of overflowing water.

Naruto surged up instantly, letting out a soft, "Fuck!" With no warning whatsoever he simply lifted Sasuke as he got off the bed.

"Jesus Christ! What do you lift, people?" Sasuke held tight onto Naruto's head in surprise, having strong, blond and goofy drop him on his head was not an appealing thought.

"Yeah," Naruto replied, carrying Sasuke into the bathroom like it was nothing. "When there's nothing to lift, why?"

"Never mind…" Sasuke twisted to see them head to a door. "Where are you taking me? If you're putting in the closet for a bad gay joke I will kick your ass."

Naruto snorted and pushed through the "I have a surprise remember?" Naruto put Sasuke down on the counter space next to the sink. "Ta da!"

Tucked into the corner of the bathroom they'd entered was a not so little tub, happily bubbling away. The air was a little steamy, and this time it wasn't because Naruto was roaming about shirtless.

Sasuke's eyes dropped to that butt again as Naruto moved to shut the overspill down. He scratched the last thought from his mind. Maybe all of the steam was thanks to Naruto.

"A hot tub."

"A Jacuzzi!"

They said at the same time.

Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, one arm raised to rub at the back of his neck and a smile. "Well…both. Now strip and let's get in."

Sasuke simply raised his eyebrows.

"Because if you don't I'll get in alone and you'll just have to watch. From afar…"

Sasuke folded his arms and leaned back into the towel bar behind him, holding back a wince. "Is that supposed to make me want join you?"

Naruto's face made a new expression, something Sasuke hadn't seen before.

It was Naruto's version of a smirk. His lips pulled up tight on one side, his lashes dropped halfway, blue eyes flashed from Sasuke's eyes down to his own pants and undid the button. "I know how much you want to join me."

"Hands off. If I recall, you left the pants on for me to pull off." Sasuke slid off the counter.

Naruto put his hands up in compliance, standing in front of the bubbling water.

In an effort to not tackle Naruto straight into the tub Sasuke took a moment to unbuckle his belt and slip it to the floor. Knocking it backwards with his foot so it slides under the sink, and out of the way.

He took another step, undoing his own pants and letting them fall as he stepped out of them. Blue eyes flashed up to Sasuke's eyes just for a millisecond and then went back to the pale hands as they reached out to take Naruto by the front of his pants.

The sound of Naruto's zip was loud in the quiet steamy bathroom.

"Sasuke…" Naruto's hands held on to Sasuke's biceps.

"Shut up." Sasuke pressed his lips to Naruto's neck for a moment, feeling his breath hitch when Sasuke's hand brushed the front of the pants as he peeled those tight pants off. "Sit down."

Naruto sat down at the edge of the tub and Sasuke dropped to his knees.

"Hey… Sasuke."

Sasuke sighed and looked up at him. "I'm not going to regret this when I find out 'who you really are', okay?"

Naruto looks conflicted for a moment, his disbelief wrestling free of those blue gates.

Sasuke takes that expression for what it is, trust in Sasuke, for letting him see it.

"I don't care about anything else, Naruto. I just want you, to be mine." With that he kissed Naruto again, invading his mouth the same way Naruto had invaded Sasuke's darkness.

Cold, nervous fingers slipped into the waistband at the back of Sasuke's dark boxer briefs and Sasuke took the cue, helping Naruto out of his first and then shedding his own.

"Get in." He half whispered and Naruto held onto Sasuke's biceps again as he stepped back, into the tub. Not looking away even for a second as if afraid he'd take his eyes off the man and he'd vanish.

Sasuke followed suit, stepping into the little space, getting caught between the side of the tub and Naruto's kiss as they sunk into the water.

The bubbles consumed them.

They stumbled back to the room, pink and warm. The city outside had gone relatively dark and quiet.

Sasuke took point shoving Naruto onto the bed, pulling his towel off, leaving Naruto a chuckling mess on the bed, his hair looking longer when wet. He reached out to touch this time, running pale fingers through damp hair like he had at the start of the evening.

"Ready?" he asked.

Naruto rolled his eyes, his playful persona back in the seat his anxieties had vacated. "No, I let you prep me in the tub just for fun."

Sasuke tightened his grip on Naruto's hair and earned himself a soft yelp. "Someone thinks he's so clever, teasing me like that."

"You can refer to me as you, I'm right here, I can hear you." Naruto quipped.

"Turn over."

"Onto my stomach?"

Sasuke tried to roll Naruto over as he rolled his own eyes. "I distinctly remember you begging five minutes ago."

"And you didn't let me cum, so I guess neither of us is getting anywhere right now." Naruto pushed back, refusing to roll away. Sasuke honestly wouldn't keep at it if Naruto didn't have the biggest shit eating grin on his face.

"Naruto."

"You know, orgasm denial is cruel and unusual punishment."

"Your existence in my life is a cruel and unusual temptation. Now, if you'll turn around I'll have you screaming in no time and then we can both pass out."

Naruto nudged both of Sasuke's elbows out from under him, making the taller man fall onto Naruto's chest. "I'm not turning over. Take me this way."

"I want to-"

"Later, I need to see your face."

Sasuke's lower abdomen tingled and he sighed. "Fine."

Naruto shifted and held up a couple of condoms.

Sasuke's eyes looked at the packed, taking a deep breath to slow his excitement. IT was getting difficult to think. "When did you…? Nevermind, gimme."

Naruto held it away as Sasuke reached for it. "Nu-uh. I'm putting it on, back up."

Sasuke scowled slightly and backed up. _Why does nothing involving Naruto ever go according to plan?_

"What's with that face?"

"Naruto, if you don't put it on in ten seconds. I'm going in bare."

"Okay, okay!" Naruto tore one open, leaving the other next to his head.

"One, two, three-" Sasuke watched fingers try to peel the package off indelicately.

"You don't need to count, Jesus!" Naruto fumbled once, dropping the condom onto himself.

"-four, five, six, seven-"

"Fuck!" he scooped it up, pinched the tip as he rolled it onto Sasuke's dick, pumping it a few times for good measure. "There! I got it, okay? Stop counting!"

"Good boy." Sasuke smiled and Naruto gaped slightly, between the head in his hand and the head practically in his face, giving him a very close up view of Sasuke's expression.

"Oh, okay, you're like, _really_ hard."

"Yeah, now," Sasuke maneuvered Naruto to be holding one of his legs up. "Hold on."

A gasping groan overlapped over a hissing gasp, as Sasuke slid home completely in one go, too eager to go slow.

"Oh fuck, Naruto," Sasuke wondered for a moment if he was using his own voice. "Damn, I think I'm having an out of body experience."

"Shit, if you fucking die before I cum, I swear to god-" Naruto's soon-to-be rant was cut off by a whine he found more necessary to express as Sasuke pulled out and pushed in again. Tan hands gripped a pillow on one side and the sheets in the other, breathing like air was sparse.

Sasuke paused, shifting positions and angling himself to find a spot he'd made good friends with in the hot tub. When Naruto made a soft grunt, his hands flying up to grip biceps. Their eyes met again. "Got you."

Blue eyes widened at the tone in his voice. Sasuke's expression was barely a warning before he began an all-out assault of pleasure, thrust after thrust to produce sound. Like playing a musical instrument.

Sasuke wasn't exactly silent but Naruto was definitely not.

His sounds enveloped Sasuke, feeding into every sense and sensation. Sasuke could hear as well as feel every vibrations of every sound.

Just one thought burned through Sasuke as he dangled Naruto at the edge, buckling down to pause, prolonging the moment that came just before Naruto's sweet release.

A whimper sounded out in the room. "S'ske..." he gasped out.

Sasuke nibbled at Naruto's lip, moving, but barely, to keep him on edge a little longer.

"…oh, you bastard! I can't…" The tension Naruto's body was pulled tight, as if frayed rope about to split. "...please, Sasuke, I need..."

Sasuke chuckled out softly in the middle of a groan and restarted his strokes, precise and controlled.

Blue eyes that were closed tight opened wide and unseeing. Tan hands gripped Sasuke's shoulders with bruising force. Naruto's body tightened with a vice-link grip, making movement difficult but Sasuke persisted, pressing his lips to the throat that moaned out loud and rough.

Sasuke's voice was only a whisper when he let out. "Oh god."

Naruto's breathing tripped over itself as he tried to suck in air between sounds that sounded almost like sobs. His back pushing off the bed slightly, while pulling Sasuke down, trapping Naruto's blood-hot dick between them for several strokes.

Naruto's hands scrambled on pale shoulders, his lips searching Sasuke's face for lips to meet his own. Warm liquid spilled between them as Naruto moaned into the kiss.

Sasuke bit Naruto's lips, initiating another surge and shudder through Naruto's muscles that tightened, throwing Sasuke into a breathless orgasm of his own.

Dropping his head onto Naruto's chest as he went slack. "Fuck."

Sasuke's head shook with the rumble of laughter that left Naruto. "Yeah."

Naruto's breathing echoed in his head as he lay there, basking in everything. Until there was the sound of a plastic wrapper.

"Hey, are you up for round two?"

Sasuke turned his head slightly and bit at Naruto.

"Ow! Okay, okay. Fuck, man. Don't do that. I can't run if you attack right now."

Sasuke stored that information for later use and placed a few kisses around the spot he'd bit. "Lucky for you I just want to cuddle right now."


	18. Death and Devotion

**18 | death and devotion**

 **{sasuke}**

The sky, like an insubstantial bag of mist choking on itself, spilt forth a torrid stream from way high up. The heavens opened up and heavy sheets of rain fell over the city.

The window had been left open and the chill of the streets was creeping and seeping between the light sheets, whipping colour into Sasuke's ears and nose.

He pulled the blankets up over them, it had been a struggle. Naruto held him like he was the door he needed to cling to for life while floating in the Atlantic seascape in the aftermath of a shipwreck.

The hold comforted Sasuke enough to get four good hours of sleep before the risk of blue extremities woke him up.

Four hours did not seem like much but that was more sober sleep at a stretch than he had clocked in since… he couldn't remember since when. Years maybe.

Or the lack of sleep made months seem like years.

Naruto's hands were on Sasuke, holding him down like an anchor as the blond himself was sunk in dreamland. The flutter of Sasuke's heart sped up then subsided.

The weight of him against Sasuke's back felt good, felt right. For the first time in forever Sasuke didn't feel like he'd turn to smoke and dissipate in his sleep.

The tight, desperate hold was a blessing. A true tell of the fact that he hadn't made a mistake. This is where he was wanted, Naruto wanted him right where he was.

Every breath against the back of his head felt like a gift crafted specifically for Sasuke. Every toss and turn of his in the bed shifted the sheets and yet somehow kept a physical connection between them, it was a cooling salve on Sasuke's aching heart.

Thoughts milled about in his mind and emotions sloshed in his chest. No one had ever trusted Sasuke enough to sleep beside him, let alone with him.

The touch of Naruto's nose to the top of Sasuke's head was a tangle of threads squeezing at his heart.

 _Naruto, do you understand who you are to me?_

 _Do you?_

 _Of course not._

 _God, what a dilemma, I want him to know but I don't want to scare him away._

 _But good lord, forgive me, for everything I've done to him, everything I do to him, everything I will do to him._

 _My love is only capable of destruction._

 _I can't help but feel I will do again, what I did before._

 _I can't help feeling that I'm not capable of anything better._

 _Help me, help me to be better._

Hot tears beaded and fell to the sheets that absorbed them, leaving no trace.

 _All I could offer him is tears – his and mine._

 _They are not comforting thoughts and hotter tears burn down Sasuke's cold cheeks._

 _I told him I love him, in every way I possibly could. But it is not enough, not enough._

 _I want him to feel me and only me._

 _To see my…to see my all._

 _I want him to know how wholly he has occupied every space that felt vacant for so long. That the absence of him used to ache in the empty moments and how he has filled them completely by simply stepping into my life._

 _The kind of power he's got over me is dangerous._

 _If he asked me to burn my life to the ground and start anew with him I could only ask whether he had matches on him._

 _But he never would._

 _He'd never ask._

 _Even if he wanted to, even if the choice was between him burning alive and me burning everything else. He wouldn't ask._

 _I know it because he wouldn't ask me if I was happy at dinner. Instead he took my silence as a personal failing. As if him simply looking at me wasn't blowing wind to wild embers._

 _What a duplicity, he makes me ask him what I want but he'd rather bite his own tongue and choke on its blood than ask me a simple question._

 _What's so wrong with you that you have all the reasoning but you don't figure yourself worthy of it? Why Naruto?_

Cool air filled his hot mouth as new tears fall forth. The new drops of dew joining the old tracks like a dried up stream of regret resuscitated.

 _Is it me? Am I the one who caused this? Was I the one who put you in a place that did you such harm you can't afford yourself the simple kindness of being a little selfish?_

 _Am I going to have to be selfish enough for both of us?_

Naruto's arms tightened around Sasuke and the hold brought a crashing thought into Sasuke's mind, as it thundered outside and blinding white light flashed through the room before turning it pitch black.

 _He thinks he's being selfish enough by being with me._

 **{naruto}**

 _Naruto's nails and fingertips were singing with strains of pain, his fingers and arms were burning in an effort to hold on for dear life. But he couldn't relax his hold; he was in a precarious position. One inch to the left and he'd get skinned alive by the tearing wind and the racing road beneath it._

 _He grunted and bit his lower lip to keep noises to a minimal, although the manic speed demon at the wheel of the eighteen-wheeler wouldn't be able to hear a thing over the sound of Rihanna blaring loudly as he took a sharp turn too fast._

 _Muscles screamed with extreme tension in an already worn-out body._

 _While his hidings spot wasn't ideal, it was effective. Thanks to the blaring headlights right in front of him, he would be easy to miss and if people tried too hard to stare, they'd be seeing spots for days._

 _He could feel the heat of the machine he was pressed up behind. An added bonus was the fact that if he passed out at least the logs he'd jammed his legs between would give him purchase enough to stay relatively unharmed._

 _Nobody cared to look in the back of old, beat-up, country-looking log-moving trucks. At least, that's what he was hoping. He had a long distance to travel. Even though the bark was beginning to chafe he felt a deep numbness winning over his senses, embalming his frayed nerves._

 _Then his vision swam at the next turn and he had a violent urge to hurl even though he had little to throw up but stomach acids and maybe bile._

 _Hands, too tan for him to recognise but definitely his, shook with the same jostling motion as his vision did, he was swimming in and out of alertness._

 _Shit, shit, shit, shit!_

 _He'd thought he'd processed whatever roofies Saso had dosed him with before he snuck – well, stumbled actually – onto the top of the vehicle from a fuel pump rooftop._

 _His right hand slipped, bruised and cut up at the fingers. Despite being tender and lacerated on the palm, he made a grab at his handhold again. But his hand only tore up even more._

 _Blood printed the log where he was holding on by the skin of his teeth, it made his grip slippery._

 _Then his bicep began to give way under the stress of his whole body's weight on the significantly weaker, left arm._

 _He tried to grip at the same spot his left arm was holding on with desperation, but the wrist made a popping sound and then the rushing flames of excruciating pain._

 _He ignored it the best he could._

 _With the tang of blood on his lips, that he'd bitten raw, his ragged nails dragged against the rough, wooden skin of the tree trunk he had been holding onto - the initial punch of pain dimmed just as he slid too far to reach it with another jerky turn of the vehicle._

 _Cold air slapped him in the face and wormed into his throat, swelling with invisible mass putting up roadblocks in his airways. He swallowed big gulps, trying to make room to force out an exhale but he was filled with more air, quicker than he could gulp it down, his throat convulsed at the misuse._

 _Mere seconds after his lungs were temporarily disabled he began to arch backwards in the air, flying without wings. His thighs acting as fulcrum as they wrenched in their place like a door hinge in a hurricane. His legs were stuck between logs that had shifted a substantial amount, squeezing his legs into sharp agony. A single jerky turn in the same direction and both his limbs would be severed into two bloody halves._

 _What a terrible, horrible idea. This was no bonus, this was no perch for the weary, this could be the end._

 _Naruto didn't have long to regret that decision as he found that the gigantic metal deathtrap under him had turned sharply in the opposite direction than he'd dreaded it would go._

 _A momentary flare of joy at the thought of being free until he realized his forced position - bending backward, with his legs in a wooden maw - was the only thing keeping him attached to his transport._

 _The momentary joy was replaced by absolute horror._

 _When the truck had made the hairpin bend it had spared his legs a messy amputation but it had also completely severed his only tether, tossing the boy off into the merciless wind; condemning him to an intimate embrace with the mountainous route they were traversing too recklessly._

 _His last moment was an up-close view of the aged tar as he crashed nose-first into a blood-filled, searing kiss of death with the asphalt._

Naruto's eyes opened to darkness and he wondered for a piercing second of pure, unadulterated anxiety if he were actually finally dead.

But the world came alive soon enough.

The soft breaths of a person right beside him accelerate his sublime anxiety into alarm before the clarity in form of an insistent twinge of soreness in his backside reminded him exactly who was sharing the bed with him.

The textured feel and bold spicy smell of the darkness informed him that beside him was a human of his favourite kind…Sasuke. And the material blocking out the rest of the world were his dark tresses.

Naruto untucked his face from the top of the head he was facing down into. No sunlight filtered into the room so it was probably the middle of the night.

"You're awake…" Sasuke's voice drifted up, soft and gruff.

That's when Naruto noticed how tight he was holding Sasuke, he loosened his grip immediately, and Sasuke's hands shot up to grip his wrists, to hold them in place.

They were both facing the same direction. Sasuke instead of having his head on a pillow was lower on the bed, his head resting on one of Naruto's biceps as Naruto held him from behind.

The thought occurred to his lazily awakening mind how they were just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl but the thought evaporated when Sasuke drew one of Naruto's hands to his face to press a kiss to every finger.

Naruto was unaware of the fact that Sasuke had laid there in a calm, deep sleep for the first time in way too many months without the help of something extra.

When Naruto pressed his lips to the back of Sasuke's neck, Sasuke pressed back against Naruto with his whole body.

Hands nowhere as tan as in his dreams started to roam.

Sasuke turned over, slipping over Naruto, his hair fell forwards, dark bangs framing his face like a wreath.

Naruto brushed his fingers against Sasuke's cheek. "You're really pretty, you know that?"

Sasuke frowned. "I will leave right fucking now-"

"No, please don't." Naruto interrupted with a forced chuckle.

"-if you ever call me pretty again."

Naruto thought about it a second as Sasuke settled himself comfortably on his lower abdomen, careful about placing his weight on any sensitive bits. "I've got to consider investing in some handcuffs."

"Mmm," Sasuke smiled, and leaned down to drape himself over the blond, taking each tan hand in his own. "Now you're talking..."

"Maybe some lip gloss for those pretty-" Naruto's tease was interrupted by a gasping giggle.

Sasuke quickly moved to hold both tan hands in one of his hand as he mercilessly attacked all the little spots he could remember.

"No! Stop!" Naruto squirmed and twisted, he was horrified and chuckling all at once. Flopping about in desperation to get away from under Sasuke just as much as he had clung to the man when he first woke up. "I'll do anything you want! As many handcuffs as it takes! Please… you… you asshole! I'm begging here, let me go! No! Not there! Stop! I can't breathe! Anything but this!"

Sasuke was good at keeping Naruto down though, as much as the blond tried to buck and writhe out from under him, the older one held steadfast. "Anything, you say?"

"ANYTHING! JUST PLEASE STOP!" Naruto yelled through his breathless tittering.

Sasuke paused, letting his free hand slide down between them. "Anything at all?"

"I'd rather you make me feel pain than ticklish." Naruto confirmed.

"Hmm… Tempting, but right now I just want you."

"You already have me."

Sasuke's hand dipped low, taking Naruto's length in his hand, stroking it a few times and feeling it respond immediately. "I want more of you."

"I don't know if there's anything left to give." Naruto whispered as Sasuke's eyes narrowed on him like a hawk looking at prey.

The intense gaze was followed by a wave of full body goosebumps Naruto displayed as a reaction to Sasuke's looks and words. "Mmm, you're so susceptible to me..."

"...you are the infectious one."

"We both know this is your sensitivity. I'm barely doing anything."

"That's true. All you have to do is stay...and all kinds of things happen."

Sasuke paused at that, inches above Naruto's face, an approving sound leaving him. "How convincing."

The blond stayed, unmoving, curious to see what Sasuke would do.

So Sasuke pressed down into Naruto's face with his own, plundering his mouth with his tongue, like a pirate in search for treasure in the hot fleshy cavity even as he stroked Naruto's dick.

A long appreciative moan left Naruto as his toes curled when Sasuke got friendly with the sensitive tip.

Naruto tugged away from Sasuke mouth only a few degrees and spoke against those parted pink lips. "I should hope so."

"Last time I checked, you were the one suggesting separation." Sasuke kissed him again, sucking at the bottom lip so that Naruto was free to make sounds.

"I know, I'm quite the fool for you," Naruto admitted. "Logic, word, numbers and plans doesn't matter to me so much in the face of you and your life."

Sasuke pulled back from Naruto, sitting up with his back straight, and looked down at him. "You filthy romantic."

"That makes you my filthy romance." Naruto returned immediately with a naughty grin.

Sasuke got off the bed.

"Hey!" Naruto frowned from the bed, where he lay with a hard-on, as he watched Sasuke's pert little butt disappear into the bathroom. "Where do you think you're going? Come back and fulfill our filthy promises!"

Sasuke returned to the room and re-occupied his previous spot, the bottle of lube brandished in his hands. "If you don't shut up I will gag you with the bottle."

The thick pulsing heat under him reminded Sasuke what he wanted, so he grasped it again, and stroked a few times, before drizzling some lube onto his fingers.

"Sasuke, I...I'm already loose...enough."

Sasuke smirked. "I'm sure you are."

Naruto pouted at him. "That's completely your fault."

"I know." Sasuke shifted his weight so his knees supported him fully then he locked lips with Naruto again as he slipped a finger into himself, working it over until he could slip another finger in.

"Sasuke? What are you doing?" Naruto strained to look behind Sasuke.

Sasuke grunted softly at the unbelievable feel of the stretch. Worming a third finger in was starting to burn. "I want you in me, Naruto, now."

"Fuck." Naruto, reached behind Sasuke and his body temperature jumped.

He heated up to such an extent his cheeks and chest dusted with a flush of such a gorgeous red that the urge to bite him shivered through Sasuke. When Naruto added his own fingers to the fray in Sasuke's slippery entrance, he had no choice but to give in.

Naruto grunted, hardening at the feel of teeth clamping onto his shoulder, his voice a breathy plea. "Oh shhhit, ohh fuuuck, Sas'ke, I..."

Sasuke's mouth traveled sideways adding a new print of love marks, as he settled himself in the anticipated position.

He paused long enough for blue eyes to connect with his and then he pushed down, feeling the head breech him.

Naruto gasped, his mouth was open and his eyelids having fallen half closed. Hands flying up to hold onto Sasuke's waist.

For someone so quiet, Sasuke had a filthy mouth in bed and every word was like another shot of something addictive through Naruto's system. And for someone so hard and sharp on the outside, Sasuke was so soft and warm and oh god on the inside.

Naruto's eyes were wide, his gaze lingered on every bruise he'd left on pale hips. They made Sasuke look well worn out.

Dark hair spread everywhere as he lay there.

Dark gaze accounted for everything they shared.

Dark mind did the math and dared, "You wanna tell me why I woke up in a death grip?"

Naruto shook his head. "Oh, you joke but..."

Sasuke turned to face him, not even wincing in pain at the matching discomfort he obviously felt in his backside. "You were dying?"

Naruto sighed heavily and closed his eyes like preparing himself. "Yeah."

"What happened?"

"I fell off a truck."

Sasuke frowned at him. "What were you doing on a truck?"

Naruto cracked a smile. It was complete bravado. "Escaping."

Sasuke clucked his tongue. "Of course. In your mind, you're James Bond's blond, peyote gargling twin, aren't you?"

Naruto chuckled, pulling at Sasuke who resisted until Naruto finally yanked him hard enough to topple Sasuke into his arms. "Actually, it was a memory."

Sasuke struggled to pull away from the roughhousing and focus on the narrative but Naruto kept his face pressed to his shoulder, holding him in a reluctant embrace. "Naruto!"

"Yes?" Naruto was trying very hard to keep Sasuke's head tucked under his chin as his voice betrayed none of the hard kicking and sharp elbow jabs they traded.

Sasuke huffed, bared his teeth at a specific spot he'd filed away as sensitive and Naruto bucked under him, letting him go.

"Fuck! Goddamn Sasuke, you play dirty!" Only half of it was a whine as he let go to rub at his neck.

Sasuke sprang away so he could look at Naruto's face. "Lucky for you, innit?" He threw back in the low tone he knew would set fire to Naruto's body.

"Haha." Naruto's smile was too stretched out and the hint of teeth promised that payback would be his.

"Are you done fussing? Because I'm still waiting on that memory you were supposed to tell me about." Sasuke insisted, satisfied that he would be able to look at that face, reading every change for a clue as to how much was true and how much Naruto was fringing on the truth to not alarm him.

Naruto sighed heavily, pouting until he realised Sasuke would not relent, sighing again at the realization that he had no choice but to share. "After I found myself in the boot of an abandoned car in hell for cars on earth-"

"Yeah, yeah." Sasuke cut Naruto off, trying to hurry him along. "Exactly where you left of."

But Naruto resisted, he squinted his at Sasuke. "Somehow I feel like you're only keeping me alive to learn my story and then write a biography, only to kill me so your book becomes a bestseller."

Sasuke blinked at him for a couple of moments then scoffed. "Only you would think up bullshit like that. Guess what, idiot, I love you. And I want to fucking know what the fuck happened to turn you so stupid."

The scathing tone with which Sasuke had called Naruto an idiot this time brooked no argument so Naruto surrendered to his fate at last. "I couldn't stay in the same city. I knew I was running from something. Because the writing on me actually said 'Run from Fox Fire'."

Sasuke expelled a breath. "Fucking of course. Why the hell do you do that?"

"You'd have asked more questions."

"Damn right!" Sasuke rubbed his face. "You absolute moron."

"Hey! I'm not telling you anything if you keep calling me names!"

"I'm going to keep calling you names until you give me a reason to stop."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto at up as well and pushed close to Sasuke, getting in his face. "Like what?"

"Like finishing the damn story!" Sasuke pushed Naruto's face back. "And you're going to tell me everything, from the start."

"Okay, okay." Naruto sighed, pouted then continued. "I needed to get the hell out of dodge. Even though Hidan had officially handed me over to Kakuzu, he would be the one on my scent like a bloodthirsty hound. Because I'd seen his face."

"I've never seen Kakuzu." Sasuke stated, but the question was obvious.

"You wouldn't have, the man was high up and always covered his face. Even if he passed you on the street, he wasn't particularly tall or short, or fat or thin. You'd just walk right by him."

"How'd he cover his face?"

"Just, with a normal mask, all I remember are the greenest jade eyes I've ever seen. I never met the man more than once a month. He was so calm I figured he was high at all times. You tell him there's a zombie apocalypse outside and he'd asks how many of those sons-of-bitches I could take on. I've never known anything to rile the man up."

Sasuke's eyebrows had steadily risen. "Sounds like you admire the man."

"Don't get the wrong idea. I didn't run after him and yell 'senpai, notice me'. And while I kind of did admire him, it was for a reason separate from who he is. It's just that... the man knew how to fight, okay? And he enjoyed it, a lot. I had very little in the way of role models growing up, okay?"

Sasuke shifted closer, his eyes carefully focused on Naruto's face. Naruto on the other hand tried his best not to look at him. "Is that something you find admirable? Ability to fight?"

"No, see..." Naruto sat up, something within him seemingly activated by the question. A fire lit up within him. "Everyone has their own reasons for learning to fight. Some people want to protect and some people just want to watch the world burn. They like to see the hope bleed out of the people they pick on, he was like that, Kakuzu liked to watch the helplessness in others, watch them panic and freeze up when he showed off his body mods, but the mask never came off."

Naruto shook his head, the lines on his face seemed to deepen, as if remembering aged him, as though the situation was more personal than he was letting on. Sasuke took a hand in his and Naruto held on tight.

"Kakuzu liked fighting because he was sure no one could win against him. He didn't care about whether the person was a good match for him, he liked playing and winning and being a bully for his own entertainment. I admired his strength because... I thought..." Naruto's eyes flickered to Sasuke. "I thought if I was as strong as him I'd be able to protect what's important to me...my freedom, my parents, my friends - what few I'd made."

"And you were running from Hidan..."

"Hidan doesn't think twice about killing. Sometimes he's admitted to having regretted killing but that doesn't seem to stop him from killing indiscriminately. It's like he does it for sport."

Sasuke's face blanched, his nails cutting crescent moon creases on the palms. "Fucking god. And I just handed you over to him on a silver platter."

"Forget that, it's in the past now." Naruto frowned. Tan hands gripped pale fists and slipped a forced them open.

"Don't you see thought?" Sasuke grabbed Naruto's bicep hard. "Every single thing about the past affects the future, there's no escaping it."

"Don't say that..." The close quarters gave Sasuke a clear view of the underlying brittleness to Naruto's voice.

Sasuke took a breath, he didn't want to hurt Naruto in any way, but Naruto needed to understand. "That's how life is, whether a success story or a tragedy, it all makes more sense in retrospect. You become the culmination of your experiences, good and bad."

Naruto paused for so long it felt like the human version of the blue screen of death.

Then he blinked a few times and looked away and pressed on. "Nagato was putting pressure on Hidan, starting to ask questions. Nagato wasn't a fan of killing, but he saw it as a necessary evil."

"Killing isn't a necessary evil, it is the exact opposite."

Naruto looked back at Sasuke with a puzzled look. "A… necessary good?"

"An unnecessary evil, you turd."

"Hey! Stop calling me names! It's fucking mean! I don't call you a nosy bastard every time you ask me uncomfortable questions!"

"I can't help that you're a dumbass." Sasuke supplied simply, a small smile slipping onto his face at Naruto's break from morosity to complain about this.

"Hey! You know what, you damn bastard? If you're gonna be like that I'm not telling you any more. I can take my sob story and go somewhere else."

"So you fell off a truck?" Sasuke raised his voice slightly, to be heard over Naruto's grumbling. His attempt to interrupt the beginings of furious monologue was met with a cold blue steel stare.

"It was the same truck I snuck onto. Halfway to the border, I felt the effects of whatever they'd used to knock me out, returning. The only reason I didn't actually fall off the drunk and off the side of a cliff was because my oversized jacket got stuck between logs. But I wasn't wearing that jacket in my dream. There, happy now?"

Sasuke was massaging at his temple. "Not really, Naru, no."

Naruto reached out, pulling the hand away to kiss at it before pressed another kiss to Sasuke's head. "Why didn't you tell me you have a headache? Are you coming down with a cold? I can give you a painkiller, y'know."

Blue eyes sought out black and Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the face again,his cheeks pressed in and lips pouted out. "Why are your eyes red? Are you going to cry?!"

"No!" Sasuke barked out, squirming out of Naruto's grip.

"Then... were you crying, before...?"

"Shut up."

"Sasuke."

"I'm just tired, idiot. I woke up freezing my balls off. Why is that damn window open?"

Naruto got up to close the window then slipped back into bed, unconvinced as he was, he let it slip. "Okay, let's try and sleep then."

Instead, of bombarding Sasuke with questions Naruto pulled the man closer and held him. His mind was working even as his tired body pulled at him to rest, his cheek pressed softly to dark mussed up hair.


	19. burnished harmony

**19 | burnished harmony**

{naruto}

A ringing cut through the comfort of the bedroom that was silently bathing in the faint, early light. The chill had dissipated and a warmth had sunken into the bones of the two figures lying tangled in the sheets.

The frosted window against which all the bottles of paint were stacked filtered muted patches of sunshine, they grew brighter and stronger with every passing cloud. Sasuke's bare back was dappled in a variety of muted colours reminiscent of a stained glass masterpiece and it made Naruto want to paint it.

It dawned on Naruto that if he had to choose only one reason for waking every morning, the best one, without a doubt, would have to be to watch the different hues dance back and forth as Sasuke breathed slow and lazy.

Distantly Naruto might have realised that the ringing had come to a stop but he'd lost himself in his musings.

He'd happily spend all morning, every morning watching the dynamic kaleidoscope slowly migrate across the expanse of pale skin down to Sasuke's magnificent rear with the aid of the rising sun. The design rippled as Sasuke stifled a yawn against Naruto's abdomen.

The ringing started up again and Sasuke groaned.

"Who the fuck..." Sasuke's arms slipped around either side of Naruto's waist and tightened. He pressed his cheeks closer as he grumbled against Naruto's stomach. "...invented cell phones? And where do I find the motherfucker?"

Naruto's soft chuckle vibrated right into Sasuke's head, maybe disturbing a few marbles loose. "All cell phones? Or just the first one? Because if you want to find them all that would turn into a long-winded and wasteful vendetta. And, personally, although I am completely biased, I'd rather you stay right where you are."

"Too early, too chatty." Sasuke murmured plaintively. The swirling tattoo print was right under his head and the scattered black locks of hair of various lengths made it look like Sasuke had a dark, hypnotic halo.

Naruto ran an appreciative hand down Sasuke's back, and up his side, creating a ripple effect as his hand changed colour with the light.

Sasuke's lips brushed against Naruto's belly button for a moment before Naruto slid out from under him and Sasuke scolded the loss with disappointed humming. The sheets slid off the bed with a soft rustle as Naruto went to the bathroom looking for a pair of pants.

"Oh hell, it's the boss!" Naruto said as he returned to the room. Pausing to take note of the pants in the stained light. "No, wait, these are your pants… so technically, it's your brother calling."

"Fuck it, I'll call back later." Sasuke murmured as he reached for the lost sheets and crooked a finger at him.

Naruto padded back with a growing smile, the cool wooden boards almost silent under his feet as he crawled back under the sheets Sasuke had spread out again.

"G'morning…" Sasuke whispered as he went back to the spiral tattoo, tracing its pattern with his lips, smiling as he watched the abdomen under his mouth go taut.

Naruto couldn't contain his smile even as he squirmed a little to make Sasuke's lips wander off the inked path.

Tan fingers combed through dark hair, nails softly scraping against the scalp and Sasuke practically purred, draping over Naruto, relishing the feel of sleep-kissed skin after the torrential downpour had subsided.

"Breakfast?"

Sasuke shook his head, brushing his nose against Naruto's stomach in the action, one hand coming up to cover Naruto's lips. "Shh. Sleep."

Naruto chuckled against the fingers, kissing them a couple of times before Sasuke took his hand away, tucking it under Naruto's back.

Growls and barking roused Naruto from slumber this time. An upset Kurama meant he hadn't attacked yet. Which begged the question of 'why not?'

Sasuke, who still had his cheek resting on Naruto's stomach, huffed and held on tighter when Naruto jostled him as he sat up. Naruto sighed softly, moving slowly to flip Sasuke to be laying his head on a pillow.

"Nar...?" Sasuke pushed up onto his elbow immediately despite being unable to open his sleepy eyes.

"Sh." A hand pressed to Sasuke's lips silencing him. Naruto was looming over him, pressing him back into the mattress gently. "Listen to me." His voice held an urgency that alerted Sasuke's drowsy mind. Dark and heavy eyes blinked open. "Stay here. And stay quiet. Don't come out no matter what you hear, okay?"

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's bicep with a tight grip when he started to pull away. A cold tendril of fear slithered down his throat unwelcome as poison. It settled uncomfortably deep in his stomach, convincing him that he'd lose the little happiness he found after just a taste. "Don't take your gun."

Naruto let out a small snort "What, you'd rather I take a knife instead?"

"No." Sasuke sat up to groggily rubbed his face into Naruto's shoulder, reaching an arm around him, ready to cling for life. "No, fuck. Just- just… Don't- Don't shoot yourself."

"Thanks for all that faith, little Uchiha." Naruto dropped a quick sloppy kiss on his face, almost on the ear, before untangling himself and reaching into his bureau for the gun. Belatedly realising he needed pants he went for Sasuke's sitting abandoned at the foot of the bed.

The kitchen lights were on, reflecting off the light grey tiles in all their artificial glory, the blinding fluorescence created a sickly pale contrast to the backdrop of the faint early light, they were accompanied by the sound of a mug and a spoon clinking against each other.

A head of wild, red hair stood out. The man was sat on the countertop, beside the microwave, a few boxes lay open and scattered beside him as he calmly sipping from a teacup, another one sat on the island table.

"I made a cup for you too..."

"Yeah, forgive me if I don't drink from it," Naruto muttered, making his way across the living room, pulling out his gun and placing it on the kitchen island between them, his own offering in exchange for the liquid in the teacup.

The redhead raised an eyebrow. At first glance he looked young and pretty, there was a timelessness to his face, as though he slept in a cryogenic chamber every night while wearing healing clay masks. But the tired lines under his eyes belie his age and stress.

"Rude." he remarked, "You don't actually assume I'd choose to kill you." The man clicked his tongue in disappointment. "In your own home?"

Naruto's left eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "There's no love lost between us, old friend. I suggest you leave the way you came right now because I'd rather not have to kick you out the window." Naruto braced himself against the counter, holding back from doing just what he'd warned about.

"I know-" The other man sighed, putting his teacup down beside him.

His face visibly aged with tension as he fiddled with the boxes beside him, replacing the lid on a few, and placing them back in the cabinets he had dug through. He fidgeting in a way that didn't look very restless but was every bit so.

"I know I- I've troubled you often about coming back and I'm sorry about that… I was just playing around. Having a little fun… You know how it is… I was just teasing, Nar. Things were a little boring and you never failed to prove entertaining..." The redhead man leaned forward, supporting his elbows on his thighs, his hands hanging between his knees, his face looked grave. Maybe he'd mistaken healing clay for plaster the night before. "Now I see that I should have counted my blessings instead of wishing for some action."

Naruto was puzzled, if this was a new approach they were taking then he didn't like it. "Apologising isn't going to change anything."

"Naruto, we need you."

Naruto's hands tightened into fists. How could he say no to need? But he's been played too many times ad this time he has something in his new life to fight for. "No! Fuck that, Sasori. You helped me and I helped Gaara in return just like you told me to. We're even."

"Okay, then let me call in a new favour and I'll owe you one." Sasori sounded reasonable enough. But he always sounded reasonable. Even when a deal goes south and he has to dive into his car window, to escape bullets, as it drives by while he's in drag.

"Sasori, if Gaara finds out you're here he will insist we move… This time to another planet probably..."

"You want me to beg? I'll beg."

"Don't bother." Naruto dropped onto a high stool at the breakfast bar, shoulders hunched. "I told you I was out! I'm out of the business, Sasori. For good. I've told you one hundred times before and I'll tell you over and over again if I have to. I am out. The end."

"Your new business will suck you dry, what will you do then?" Sasori hopped off the counter and stepped closer to the breakfast bar. "When your legs fail you and your youth leaves and you turn into a has-been?"

"I don't know, sell pancakes? Or shampoos? I might try a music career, this voice only gets better with age, yanno?" Naruto sniffed the drink in front of him. If they're trying to get him back they're hardly going to poison him now. A second sniff made him reconsider, it definitely smells like poison.

"Ah yes," Sasori tapped his fingers rhythmically on the closest surface he could find. "Nagato still has people on the lookout in Thailand."

"Aw, a whole country invaded by Nagato? For little ol' me?"

"Why Thailand?" Sasori asked.

"Training under someone who wants to protect rather than destroy is a very different experience. It helped me accept who I was and who I could be."

Sasori smiled. "Come back to the fold, Naruto. We need you."

Naruto shook his head, still not comprehending what Sasori was still doing in his kitchen. "No. No fold for me. I remain unfolded. No refolding, no going back, only forward." His shaking hands clasped behind the back of his neck.

"You could fix everything you thought was broken in our little world," Sasori said, a flicker of something in his eyes, something akin to the face of a player before he drops a winning hand.

There was a moment of silent interaction. A clash between eyes of stubborn blue and pleading hazel.

"Please," Sasori added finally. Standing there, across Naruto, he was looking entirely too small for an infamous drug lord - his voice sounded even smaller.

Had he not been eating? Was he indulging in his own goods? Did anyone know? Did anyone in the fold care? What if Naruto was his last hope?

Well fuck.

When Naruto didn't reply, Sasori took it as a good sign. He slipped around the island table to stand beside Naruto. "Nagato wants you to succeed him."

Naruto inhaled sharply, stilling while his heart beat out a bongo in his ears. He managed a barely audible, "What?"

"He's dying, Naruto."

Naruto tipped forward, suddenly feeling off-balance. The world around him felt like it was swaying.

A lone leaf in the gusty wind of change.

He leaned heavily against the counter, his composure finally breaking at the seams.

He didn't want to go back but the situation was nothing less than complicated. He didn't approve of a life of crime but that didn't mean he wished death on any of them.

After all, they had once given him purpose, taught him to fight an survive the way he did, one trick a day, one day at a time.

"How?" he creaked out the question.

"Cancer." Sasori put a strong hand on Naruto's shoulder as if to help steady him. "Yahiko takes him to his treatment and he wears a wig now, he looks a little anaemic but Yahiko is the one that looks like walking death… he's taking it pretty hard, he doesn't show it but there are somethings that show on their own." Sasori nudged the proffered cup towards Naruto a bit and leaned on the island bar.

Naruto didn't hesitate. He took a sip by dipping his head close to the table and barely lifting the mug with shaky hands. He made a face as soon as the liquid touched his tongue. "This is straight-up vodka with a tea bag."

"Don't knock it, just knock it back." Sasori barely batted an eyelash, his face was still solemn despite the lightness in is tone.

"You always were the worst influence. Cold alcoholic tea and gateway drugs first thing in the morning, what next?" Naruto downed the drink despite the grumbling.

"Naruto, we need you." His hand tightened on Naruto's shoulder.

"I can't, I'm going clean, Sasori. Why can't you let me be?"

"Because Nagato and Yahiko want you!" The rise in Sasori's voice surprised Naruto and it surprised Sasori too apparently because he immediately let go and sat down on a high stool, suddenly a little blanched.

It was becoming clear just how stressful and desperate things were for the syndicate. Their kingpin was at risk and his right-hand man was subject to loss and all the loyalists were probably shaken by the unease in the oligarchy.

Everyone looked up to Yahiko and Nagato, the only reason their team lasted long was that, together, they were an unstoppable team and their revolutionaries were a tense mish-mash of mean, mouthy, temperamental, insane, well-oiled pieces of a flexible machine.

But with the loss of any one of them, the other pieces would be in no way to work smoothly.

They were counting on Naruto to fill the gap again, be the new version of an old part and work even as he was being moulded.

But Naruto had made his decision a long time ago and he wasn't wavering. "Nagato can't have me just because he has cancer. If anything he has more reason to make things right, right now."

"How can you say something like that, Naruto?" Sasori looked like Naruto had declared God was evil.

"It's death, it takes you at some point. Now that he knows when it's his time, he can make things right before he goes."

"We could help you find Minato." Sasori's face had tightened but his voice was calm and careful, clearly expecting something.

Naruto jumped up from his stool, sending it crashing into a side table, several photo frames tumbled to the floor, inciting growling from a restless Kurama who hopped onto the sofa and over the back of it to skid to a stop on Sasori's other side, trapping him in between them.

"You fucking bastard! Don't you dare say that name again! As if I'll ever make a deal with you for the rest of my life! You promised me that you'd leave me well enough alone when I earned my freedom and I did more than what our deal entailed. And how did you repay me? By ambushing me in every city, wherever you could pull your strings. You made it clear that I'll never escape your sight for long and hell maybe I never will. You can hang over my head like a damn guillotine all you fucking want but you can't make me do anything I don't want to no matter how far you chase and corner me and no matter which one of you dickbags are choking on a fucking tic tac-"

"Naruto?" Sasuke stood at the end of the corridor. A deep frown on his face.

Naruto turned to look at him and found he could breathe again, a pile of anchors lifted off his shoulders, his fury dissipating quick.

"Oh." Sasori's face had been washing from pale to red to green during Naruto's rant but as he looked over at Sasuke, his face was a clear porcelain mask. "You have a guest."

Sasori then looked around, as if wondering why there seemed to be no evidence of a guest but he only spotted Naruto's shirt and jacket from the previous night on the stool beside him. "Were you leaving, Mr?"

Sasuke folded his arms across his bare chest, a defiant lift to his chin and a challenging lift to his eyebrows, he was bracing his feet in a fighter's stance. Attitude flaring to life in every line of the man, no longer a shadow but a darkness so pervasive Naruto found it concerning at the very least. "Definitely not before you."

"No. He's staying. It was you who was leaving." Naruto was suddenly very upset that Sasori had ruined his morning after breakfast with Sasuke by delivering bad news of his one distant male relative only in an attempt to manipulate him into going back to a life of law-breaking and hell.

Sasori blinked at Sasuke then dismissed him entirely as if he was a piece of furniture or a pet parrot that had taken to speaking nonsense. "I see… So is this a one-time thing or…?"

Naruto grabbed a hold of Sasori's collar and lifted him up from his seat. The stool sliding smoothly on the tiles with a muffled sound. "Get the fuck out of my house!"

"Temper, temper, temper." Sasori scolded, unaffected by the circumstances.

"Naruto, who is this?" Sasuke asked taking a step into the room, he was wearing those tight, tight jeans Naruto had donned the night before and they clung to his hips in a way so delicious it angered Naruto that Sasori was there to see.

Sasori chuckled in amusement as he hung in the shirt Naruto was seconds from tearing. "Who am I? Does he know anything? Does he know about Gaara?"

"He knows more than you at least and Gaara is a private person - if you actually cared you'd bother him and nose around in his love life rather than stalking me and fucking up my morning!"

Sasori raises his eyebrows, having expected anything but that as a response. His eyes turning to Sasuke with renewed interest. "He knows more, does he? Then maybe I could ask him for some help because I'm getting nowhere with you."

"What the actual fuck is your goddamn motherfucking problem? Do you fancy yourself my mom?"

"Well… Family, at the very least."

"Family my ass! You all bullied me the whole fucking time."

"Stop being such a brat, little boy blue. Clearly, you learned all that cursing from Hidan. All that fighting from Kakuzu and all the rebelliousness from Deidara. And if you actually don't give a damn if any of them choke on a Tic Tac then you picked up a lot more of Kisame than I anticipated."

Naruto let go of him and Sasori adjusted his shirt. "Sasori, don't you have drugs to sell?"

"So testy," Sasori got up and walked to the window, side-eyeing Kurama the whole time as the dog stood guard between the kitchenette and the corridor to the bedrooms in which Sasuke lingered in like a pale apparition. A low growl threatened any untoward movement.

"I will take this abuse no longer." Sasori peeked out the window. He then climbed up onto the window seat. "Just remember, some die in action and some die in their bed, which do you want to be? See ya later, little boy blue."

"Please don't." Naruto huffed as the man stepped out onto the window ledge.

Sasori slipped away and Kurama raced up to the window seat, sticking his head out with a barked phrase that almost sounded like, 'and don't come back!'

Even before Naruto could turn to look at him Sasuke was asking, "Naruto, who was that?"

Naruto sighed. "Just my previous employer."

Sasuke's eyebrows shot up. "You have a terrible sense of humour."

"I'm not kidding."

"I'm guessing you didn't part on the best of terms." Sasuke came to the kitchen counter and sat down. His voice strained, "So he's the drug dealer?"

"And my pimp." Sasuke's stony expression had him backpedalling immediately. "Well, he didn't pimp me out or anything... but... he is a pimp… and I know him… so..."

"You fucker!" Sasuke twisted at Naruto's ear and the blond shouted out in equal parts surprise and pain.

"And what that the drug dealer part?" Sasuke demanded.

Naruto didn't reply.

He took Naruto's hand a little too quick and rough. "Look, you have to tell me! At the very least these kinds of things-"

"I'm not an addict, Sasuke! Jeez!" Naruto made a face, his tanned, scarred cheeks still pink from all the yelling. "What kind of face will I show my parents if I return to them addicted?" Naruto winced as if considering his parents' reaction to him having the drug stamp on his resume.

"Naruto," Sasuke said the name with a sharp yet gentle scolding tone.

Naruto looked Sasuke in the eyes. "Do I look like an addict to you?"

Sasuke studied Naruto's steady gaze. "No."

Naruto nodded like that was the responses he expected. "So what do you want for breakfast?"

Sasuke didn't respond.

"I have call time in a couple of hours and you know what? If I don't wash my hair, Ino will beat my ass. How about we save the drug talk after work? Okay?"

Sasuke pouted and Naruto couldn't resist the chance to press a kiss to the pouty lips. "Grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast?"

Ino glared at Naruto for ten minutes until he finally broke.

"I'm sorry."

She sighed, took her sunglasses off and rubbed at her kohl-lined eyes, smudging them into a more grunge look. "Naruto, I'm glad you're having a lot of filthy gay fun with the boss little brother," she grinned at Naruto's red-tinted ears. "But can you at least try and not get love bitten when we have to do a shirtless scene?"

"What shirtless scene?" Naruto sighed. "What am I saying? Most of the scenes are shirtless!"

"You know which shirtless scene, you know the script pretty well by now. It's that gym scene where you meet Kiba." Ino paused. "Come to think of it, this might work…" She turned around and walked out the dressing room yelling for Itachi.

Naruto scrambled to cover up but then realised he'd have to do a shirtless scene in front of the whole crowd, so it didn't matter if he covered up or not. Apart from making it obvious that he had something to hide, it would do nothing for him.

Instead of Itachi and Ino, it was Sai who entered and let out a low whistle. "You look like art."

Naruto didn't know whether to laugh or curl up and die. "Say that to the artist." He replied.

"No, not good art, just art." Sai clarified as he walked a circle around the blond. "Nothing to write home about."

"Who hired you to be the art critic anyway?" Naruto threw his shirt at Sai.

The man caught the grey fabric and smiled his trademark lukewarm smile. "Your… Artist seems to be a possessive man."

"I'm not for sale if that's what you're asking." Naruto stuck his tongue against the inside of his left cheek and softly chewed the muscle, trying to keep from laughing.

"Shame. I could do you justice." Sai remarked, coming to a stop in front of Naruto.

Naruto couldn't tell if that was flirting or a serious comment but either way, it made him snicker, something about Sai's social skills tickled him pink. "No offence, Sai, but you're talking art and I'm talking pleasure. They're not the same thing ."

"Ah... well, that's not true." Sai let a few fingers linger down the path of darkened love bruises. "Art is pain. And often enough, pleasure is also pain. You just need the right ratio..."

Footsteps approached the pair of them, hands getting between them. "Alright, alright, thanks for the wonderful philosophy. Now move the fuck on." Sasuke had entered the room, detached Sai's fingers from the trail they were pursuing, and ushered him out of the room and slammed the door shut, anger marring his calm façade.

Naruto cracked a smile, rushing to diffuse the fire. "He called you an artist...a mediocre one at that."

Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, his brows pinched in incredulity. "Yeah? Well, he's an asshole! What are you doing letting him touch you anyway?"

"I'm an actor a hundred people from the cast and crew touch me in a day, it's part of the job."

Sasuke was breathing hard, apparently worked into a frenzy. "Not. Him."

"Calm down, Sasuke, he touched my shoulder and back not my dick."

Sasuke grabbed a metal and cloth folding chair set up by the mirror and flung it in anger. The collapsible seat, rolled a bit and skidded across the room and fetched up against the far wall, closing shut in defeat.

His fingers curled into a fist and he regulated his breathing before speaking again. "He shouldn't be here touching you at all, nowhere in his job description does it say to touch the actors."

"Sasuke, Sai's an old friend. He means no harm." Naruto let his tone drip soft and sweet as he took a fist in his hand and slowly unclenched the fingers.

"Older than me?"

"No one is older than you, grandpa." Naruto sighed as he worked on the second fist. "It's an old game we play. He hits on me, I hit back, we play along until he gets to the point. I laugh at his new and improved worldview and either agree or disagree. He hands me a backhanded compliment for not being a space case. I call him a dick. He calls me dickless. And then he leaves."

"I don't like him. He reminds me of…" The shutters came down and Sasuke looked away.

"Old or otherwise, Sai is a friend to me, Sasuke." Naruto walked Sasuke across the room to the fold up chair.

He retrieved the chair, careful to lock it in the open position, he sat Sasuke down in the seat and kneeled on the floor before him, leaning forward into Sasuke's lap.

"He was the one who balanced me when my sorrow overshadowed my rage. He constantly teased and mocked me, he was a perpetual annoyance rather than a friend in the start. But soon he turned into the marker of a normal day. A statue in the barren garden of my life."

Sasuke frowned. "Have you told him that?"

"I don't need to. He was there, he saw what happened and what I was and what I became. And he helped me get through it."

Sasuke's eyes widened. The day was turning into an actual excursion into the past. "Does he know Gaara?"

"He knows about him, but they haven't met."

"Who exactly is this Gaara?"

Naruto sighed. "Gaara was my first good deed. He was far out in the same sea that I had been lost in but he didn't have a Sai to help him float. Sasori made me a deal. He'd let me out for good, even help me my education, but in return, I had to save his cousin."

"Does Gaara know that Sasori sent you to him?"

"Maybe? We haven't spoken about it. But Gaara is both, sharp and paranoid."

"Why did Sasori show up today."

Naruto stood up, a tension seizing his head and shoulders. "To tempt me back into hell."

"What were you yelling about?" Sasuke started to get up but Naruto pushed him back into the seat.

The smile on his face was tense but real, like the helpless silence after a terrible verdict. "Don't worry he didn't do a great job. And I have a lot to stay here for."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Cute. But that's not what I asked."

Naruto threw his hands up in the air. "You say that about everything!"

Sasuke opened his mouth to argue but the door opened and Itachi entered, took one look at Naruto's bruise painted body and let out a bark of disbelieving laughter. "Are you fucking kidding me, Sasuke?"

"Uhh..."

"First, you weren't at home when dad dropped by, leaving me to explain that you hadn't come home last night!" Itachi approached Sasuke slowly, making his little brother jump up and back up. He moved like a predator that had been waiting for the right moment to pounce all night. He had a maniacal glint in his eyes of a man pushed beyond his limit. "And if my morning wasn't excruciating enough already, you come to work with my star looking like that! There is a storm of paps trying to break down the door and you just sit there smug as a bug, you little fucker! Are you trying to sabotage my show?"

"Itachi, calm down." Sasuke backed up even further as Itachi closed in on him.

"And then I fight out my favourite bottle of white Rum is sitting empty in the minibar! Who did that I wonder?"

Sasuke winced. "My bad."

Itachi lunged for Sasuke, grabbing by the shirt a wrestling him into a half Nelson on the floor of the dressing room.

"Holy shit." Naruto, was split, does he pull his boss of his boyfriend? Is it wise to meddle in a battle between brothers?

"Is it wrong to find that extremely hot?" Ino asked Naruto as Sasuke yelled out that he couldn't breathe.

"What is your damn problem, you damn brat! How difficult is it to let me know where the fuck you are going? Did you forget how to pick up a phone? Did you have a brain aneurysm last night and forget what a call back option is?"

"I'm sorry, Aniki, I was a little... preoccupied." Sasuke gasped out, he did seem rather breathless.

Naruto dropped to the floor beside them in an imitation of a push-up, it put him face to face with Itachi. "If I promise to make him check in with you more often can we all put this behind us and go back to our jobs? I really don't want someone, probably Ino, tweeting out a picture of this and then everyone will speculate why you two, the calm, collected, respectable Uchiha boys, were rolling around on the floor of my dressing room."

"Hey!" Ino protested, even though she was holding her phone out in front of her, clearly caught red-handed. "Snitch!"

Itachi pulled away from Sasuke and Sasuke heaved like he'd resurfaced from water. They were both relatively red in the face.

"I'm really sorry about this, Itachi." Naruto tried for a smile as he checked on Sasuke but it looked like a wince. "We had… a busy night and busy morning...uh… there was a lot to talk about… "

Itachi straightened his clothes, dusting himself off as he stood up, his face was still flushed, but whether it was due to the grappling or the frank statement Naruto couldn't tell. "I'm not uncomprehending of your budding romance, Naruto. But I'm sure you've realised that Sasuke is an adult who, despite his wonderful qualities, is too foolish to realise that, as his brother, if I'm interrupting his extended rendezvous, it's for good reasons."

"You could've said that instead of tackling me to the floor."

"Somehow, you only respond to punishments, orokana otōto."

"Okay, I thought this was going too emo and then he said that." Ino turned and zoomed in on Naruto's face a little too much before backing up. "What do you think about that, Naruto?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Ino, you're really bringing down the gravity of the conversation here by being a bad camera-woman."

"How about I promise not to post the whole thing?"

Naruto paused to think about it then stuck out his tongue and threw up a peace sign, apparently appeased.

"Aw, cute!" Ino clicked a bunch of pictures and Itachi crowded closer to get a look at what she was doing.

"I hate you all," Sasuke muttered, despondent.

Naruto assisted Sasuke with straightening out his hair. "I basically saved your life, teme, have some gratitude."

Sasuke sucked on his teeth, a sceptical sound he often made, but let Naruto. "Some boyfriend, you are."

"I will have you know that Sakura told me that the latest poll shows that I'm voted the most dateable fresh-face!"

"Yeah, only for the one date."

Naruto's jaw dropped, Ino hissed a sharp intake of breath and Itachi dropped Ino's phone.

The extended pause made Sasuke clench his toes inside his shoes.

"WELL FUCK YOU TOO THEN, YA BASTARD!"

Naruto shoved Sasuke away, clearly offended.

"What, I'm not wrong. They'd all want to date you for the fame or the looks, or just to say they did. They don't care about you the way I do." Sasuke hurried to explain.

Ino whistled out and Itachi sniffed in derision because he was too well-groomed to snort.

"Nice save," Sai commented from the doorway.

Naruto made a face. "I don't believe you. So… go fuck yourself."

"Don't be like that. How many times do I have to say I love you before it becomes fact in your thick skull."

"Is this an Uchiha thing?" Naruto asked Itachi, completely ignoring Sasuke. "Insults instead of affectionate endearments?"

"Yes, it's rather common. My mother calls my father her biggest curse."

Naruto slapped a hand on own his forehead. "Brilliant."

Itachi always delivered any and all wise-cracks with a straight face so it was impossible to know if he was kidding or not. "What do we do? About the scene?"

Itachi hummed in consideration.

"We could do the aftermath scene today," Sai suggested. "Ino, you can make Naruto look less loved up and more beat up, yes?"

"Uh, if you have to ask, you're not invited into this dressing room ever again."

"That sounds like a great idea, Ino," Sasuke remarked, even as he prodded at Naruto's arm to get a reaction out of at the blond who was ignoring him.

Sai pouted, it was an exaggerated disaster, it made him look like he'd gotten the last pick at a build-a-face workshop.

"What the fuck?" Sasuke said.

"Sai, stop." Ino begged.

"Never do that again." Itachi forbade.

"Needs more practice, my dude." Naruto's comment had the other three look at him like he was crazy. "Block the haters out, Sai, none of that negativity, this is a safe space for creators."

"Thank you Naruto, your kindness knows no bounds."

"Ah, shut up. Go annoy someone else." Naruto threw an arm around Sasuke who was a few more cold shoulders from starting to wilt from the lack of his attention. Naruto found it amazing that he could tell now that the seemingly placid man was clearly anxious about their last conversation.

"I will leave." Sai agreed. "But because I have actual work, work that is not practising fake facial expressions in a mirror all day and calling it a job."

"I'm not gonna lie, Sai. You probably should." Naruto called out after him as he left.

Ino muttered to herself as she busied herself by opening up a bunch of cosmetics and separating them into three categories.

When Naruto and Sasuke turned to Itachi they both took an unconscious step back. There was a weird smile on his face as held Ino's phone.

"What is with that face?" Naruto whispered to Sasuke.

"I don't know, but it can't mean anything good." The fairer man replied.


End file.
